Book Summaries/Reviews




Writing as Therapy!
Sibling estrangement often carries profound hurt, grief, and a deep stigma. The loss of a brother or sister through estrangement can raise elemental doubts that ripples through a life, altering every family relationship as well as an individual’s identity, self-esteem, and ability to trust. This writing journal offers a private, emotional outlet to understand and process the grief of sibling estrangement.
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"This is such an important book -- and so easy to use. A must for anyone who is hurting from having a breached relationship with a sibling."​
- Dr. Karen Gail Lewis, Family Therapist and Author of Sibling Therapy: The Ghosts from Childhood that Haunt Your Clients' Love and Work
​"This book is a “must” for all mental health clinicians because it highlights the unrecognized trauma of being “dissed” or overlooked by a loved family member."
~ Myrna Orenstein, Ph.D. and author of Smart but Stuck: Resilience with Learning Disabilities
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A True Story of a Child Fleeing the Holocaust Alone!
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It’s 1938, and twelve-year-old Edith is about to move from the tiny German village she’s lived in all her life to a place that seems as foreign as the moon: Chicago, Illinois. And she will be doing it alone.This dramatic and chilling novel about one girl’s escape from Hitler’s Germany was inspired by the experiences of the author’s mother, one of fourteen-hundred children rescued by Americans as part of the One Thousand Children project.
​​"Eloquent and powerful....As with the best writing, the specifics about life as a young immigrant are universal."
~ Booklist starred review​
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​A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year
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A YALSA Best Fiction Nominee
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A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
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A Junior Library Guild Selection
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Booklist’s 1000 Best Young Adult Books since 2000​
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​​New Release!
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HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO AVOID BEING FORCED TO KILL?
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On a cold December night, a young man’s future is hijacked. It’s 1969 -- Bruce’s lottery number guarantees he will be drafted, sent to fight in Vietnam. In this compelling coming-of-age memoir, one young man’s moral dilemma forces him to question everything he believes. Would a real man do whatever his country asks? Or must he follow his conscience, placing integrity above friends, family, and his own future?


The Legacy of the Holocaust series

A Model for Service Learning
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A beautifully designed, accessible read that teaches history through a personal story of friendship. Primary source material – original photos and historical documents – brings this narrative to life.
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Teachers use this book to inspire students to tackle remarkable service learning projects that can change lives.
​​​​​Independent Book Publisher
Bronze Medal winner
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(updated version of Like Finding My Twin)
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A Book that Asks, “How Do We Remember?”
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Through photos, historical documents, and text, readers witness the installation of memorial stones – stolpersteine – for a Jewish family murdered in the Holocaust. An artist creates a project that compels residents of a small German town to wrenchingly reconsider and recognize their involvement in national crimes.
This book serves as a springboard to a discussion on who, as a nation, we honor, remember, and memorialize. How can a people atone for national crimes?​
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Junior Library Guild selection
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(updated version of Stumbling on History)


An Unaccompanied Minor’s Story of Loss
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Twelve-year-old Gerda Katz’s story of her fractured family shows the dislocation, trauma, and culture shock that many child refugees experience. Primary source materials - original photos, letters, and historical documents - illustrate how racism in three countries disrupted and devastated one family’s life. This book spotlights a little-known program in the Dominican Republic that rescued Jews during the Nazi era.
One family’s odyssey of separation and reunion serves both as a tribute and as a warning – a gateway to this somber event in world history.
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Junior Library Guild selection
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(updated version of Three Stars in the Night Sky)

The Happy Harper series

Helping Children Understand Family Separation
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A colorful, delightfully illustrated book captures how the pandemic disrupts the cherished routine of a grandmother and grandmother. When the two can't see each other, the confused child wonders why.

Showing Children that Love Doesn't Disappear!
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In this colorful picture book, children learn that even when they can't see cherished family members, love burns brightly - like a light that's always turned on.