Grandpa's Third Drawer
Unlocking Holocaust Memories
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Of all the places in the world, Uri really loves to be at his grandparents’ house. There he can stay up way past his bedtime and eat as many sweets from the chocolate box as he likes. There’s only one forbidden place in that house: the third drawer in Grandpa’s desk. This drawer is locked. No one ever opens it until one day when Uri finds the key to the third drawer. From that moment, nothing is ever the same.
Grandpa’s Third Drawer takes up the difficult challenge of discussing the Holocaust with young children, of teaching its heritage and memory, all in a gentle and unobtrusive manner. The story of a silent grandfather unexpectedly confronted by his curious and loving grandchild is accompanied by rich illustrations that show authentic preserved objects donated by Holocaust survivors from Theresienstadt.
The original Hebrew edition won the Israeli Ze’ev Prize for Children’s Literature in 2003 and twice won the first prize in Mits’ad Hasfarim for first to third grades (in 2003 and 2012), a nationwide survey of all schoolchildren in Israel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in Israel, this poignant book introduces the Holocaust with candor and discretion. Uri's visits to the home of his grandparents (who are originally from Germany) are idyllic: breakfast "lasts for as long as you like," and Grandpa Yuda plays Mozart on the piano. In their home, the boy senses a "kind of quiet... the silence of people who come from a faraway world a vanished world that still lives in memories." That (rather adult) observation acquires even deeper resonance when Uri unlocks Grandpa's off-limits drawer filled with Holocaust artifacts: the Star of David pin that once identified Grandpa as a Jew, handmade dominoes that he and his sister played in the ghetto to keep "a seed of happiness in our hearts," and a concentration camp uniform. Prompted by Uri and the relics, Grandpa recalls the Nazis forcing his family from their home and sending him to a different camp than his parents and sister, whom he never saw again. Kopelman's collages incorporate photos of archival Holocaust objects and documents, bringing the tragedy into even sharper focus. Ages 5 8.
