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The Light in Hidden Places
CCBC Review:
Catholic teenager Stefania (called “Fusia”) leaves her family’s farm to move to Przemyśl, where she begins working for the Jewish Diamant family. She is embraced by the family and romanced by one of the sons, Izio, promising to marry him. When Germany occupies Poland, marking the start of World War II, the Diamants are forced into the Przemyśl ghetto. In addition to caring for her younger sister, Helena, only six when Fusia finds her all but abandoned back home after their parents are sent to a labor camp, Fusia becomes a lifeline for the Diamant family. First she smuggles food into the ghetto. After Izio dies in a labor camp, Fuzia, working with Izio’s younger brother, Max, works out a plan to help the remaining members and several others escape. She and Helen hide them—13 people in all—in increasingly precarious living situations. At one point, two nurses working at the German hospital across the street from their apartment are boarded with them, their SS boyfriends visiting regularly. The 13 hide in a cramped attic space, behind a false wall Max built. This fictionalized account of a true story reveals so many sides of human nature, from suspicion to annoyance to brutality to the false comfort of denying things are not as bad as they seem. But compassion is the resonant theme. Photographs and additional information about Fusia, Helen, and Max (whom Fusia married after the war) is included at the end of this tense, compelling work. ©2021 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 13 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
20th Century
Christian People
Courage
Historical Fiction
Holocaust
Jewish People
Love and Romance
Poles and Polish Americans
World History
World War II
Diversity subjects:
Christian
Jewish
Publisher:
Scholastic Press
Publish Year: 2020
Pages: 377
ISBN: 9781338355932
CCBC Location: Fiction, Cameron