Eli Remembers - Hardcover

Vander Zee, Ruth; Sneider, Marian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802853099 ISBN 13: 9780802853097

Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2007

Synopsis

A Jewish boy learns about his Eastern European ancestry and the meaning of remembrance in this powerful picture book, based on a true Holocaust story.

Year after year, Eli watches the solemn lighting of seven candles at his family's celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. On such a happy occasion, his parents and grandparents always seem sad, and Eli can't understand why.

But when he travels to Eastern Europe to learn more about his family history, Eli learns how the candles represent his family's connection to the Holocaust in Lithuania, and how remembering his ancestors can help heal years of grief and shame.

This moving story is based on the true life experience of Sneider’s grandson. Illuminated by Bill Farnsworth's sensitive brush strokes and muted palette, the book can be used as an introduction to World War II and the Holocaust and discussions about family history.

Named an ILA/CBC Children’s Choices Book and a Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and Children's Book Council (CBC).

About this title

About the Authors

Ruth Vander Zee, teacher and writer, is also the author of Erika's Story, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti (Creative Editions). She lives in San Jose, California with her husband.

Marian Sneider (1934–2005), author and family therapist, wrote professionally for the Miami Herald, Miami News, and Highlights and Turtle children's magazines. Eli Remembers was inspired by events from her own family, and is her first published book for children. Marian passed away in December 2005.

Bill Farnsworth has illustrated more than forty books, including Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Wise (Lee & Low) and The Flag with Fifty-Six Stars by Susan Goldman Rubin (Holiday House). Bill lives in Florida.

Reviews

Why does Eli's great-grandmother Gussie cry when she lights the candles for the Jewish New Year? Eli learns the horrifying secret when he flies with his family to the Lithuanian village where Gussie lived as a child. They drive through the forest to the pit, where 80,000 Jews, including her father and siblings, were shot dead by the Nazis, their bodies burned. Based on the experience of Sneider's grandson, this picture book tells the history in stark prose, and Farnsworth's unframed, glowing oil paintings show the boy in his warm home and then in the bleak forest. Unfortunately, the present-day scenario is sentimentalized; the characters are almost greeting-card icons of grief and love. There isn't any of the bitterness or anger in survivor stories found in books such as Art Spiegelman's Maus (1986) and Anita Lobel's No Pretty Pictures (1998), for older readers. But this is a journey back that many Jewish survivor families are now taking, uncovering the horror of genocide that no one ever talked about at home. Sure to spark discussion and more research. Rochman, Hazel

Edition details

• Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802853099
• ISBN 13: 9780802853097
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Farnsworth Bill
• Number of pages: 32