The Horn Book Guide

OLDER FICTION

Iturbe, Antonio

The Librarian of Auschwitz

424 pp. | Holt/Godwin | October, 2017 | Trade ISBN 978-1-62779-618-7 $19.99

(1) YA Translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites. The children in 1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau's "family camp" are kept busy so their parents can work more efficiently--or so the Nazis think; in fact, the prisoners are running a school. Even more extraordinary, the school has a librarian: fourteen-year-old Edita Adlerova (based on a real person), in charge of eight precious, forbidden books. Iturbe's remarkable account uses an immediate present tense to immerse readers in Dita's story. Bib.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2018