(3) 4-6 Adapted by Mary Cronk Farrell. Irena Sendler was a Christian Polish woman who rescued thousands of Jewish children during WWII. The emotion-filled, narrative-style text includes invented dialogue and attribution of thoughts and feelings; these inserted "fly-on-the-wall" moments were "based on the archives and historical sources," and an adapter's note and copious endnotes provide details. Photographs are interspersed, adding personal faces to the horrifying history.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Bill Farnsworth. Disguised as a nurse, Irena Sendler covertly rescued nearly four hundred children from the Warsaw ghetto, smuggling them out in trucks, potato sacks, and coffins; teaching them Catholic prayers to disguise their origin; and finding them shelter in homes and convents. Farnsworth's dramatic oils convey the danger and urgency of Sendler's mission, which Rubin details with brisk clarity. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton