Hana's Suitcase: The Quest to Solve a Holocaust Mystery
Brand: Crown Books for Young Readers
Color: Tan
Categories: Books, Children's Books, Geography & Cultures


Crown Books for Young Readers

Grade level: 3 - 7
Dimensions: 7.31 x 0.35 x 9 inches
Reading age: 9 - 12 years, from customers
ISBN-13: 978-1101933497
ISBN-10: 1101933496
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Print length: 144 pages
Publication date: January 5, 2016
Lexile measure: 730L
Language: English
subtitle: Paperback – Illustrated, January 5, 2016
author: Visit Amazon's Karen Levine Page search results Karen Levine
review: Editorial Reviews From School Library Journal Gr 5–8—The recipient of multiple honors, this moving title simultaneously shines a spotlight on the life of a young Holocaust victim and makes the process of exploring and unraveling history relevant and exciting. In 2000, after receiving an empty child's suitcase from a museum in Auschwitz labeled "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, Orphan," Fumiko Ishioka, curator of a Holocaust museum in Tokyo, decided to track down Hana and discover what happened to her. Alternating between describing Hana's life in Czechoslovakia as the Nazis came to power and following Ishioka's process of learning about the girl's story, Levine creates tension and drama as readers slowly uncover Hana's fate. Bonus material includes notes from Levine, Ishioka, and Hana's brother, George Brady; photographs from Hana's childhood and from Ishioka's and Levine's travels and visits; and memories from those who knew Hana and her family.—Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal About the Author Karen Levine is the recipient of two Peabody Awards for her radio work. She originally produced Hana’s Suitcase as a radio documentary that won a gold medal at the New York International Radio Festival. Karen lives in Toronto, Ontario. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Tokyo, Japan, Winter 2000 Really, it’s a very ordinary-looking suitcase. A little tattered around the edges, but in good condition. It’s brown. It’s big. You could fit quite a lot in it--clothes for a long trip, maybe. Books, games, treasures, toys. But there is nothing inside it now. Every day children come to a little museum in Tokyo, Japan, to see this suitcase. It sits in a glass cabinet. And through the glass you can see that there is writing on the suitcase. In white paint, across the front, there is a girl’s name: Hana Brady. A date of birth: May 16, 1931. And one other word: Waisenkind. That’s the German word for orphan. The Japanese children know that the suitcase came from Auschwitz, a concentration camp where millions of people suffered and died during the Second World War between 1939 and 1945. But who was Hana Brady? Where did she come from? Where was she traveling to? What did she pack? How did she become an orphan? What kind of girl was she and what happened to her? The children are full of questions. So is the director of the museum, a slender young woman with long black hair named Fumiko Ishioka. Fumiko and the children gently take the suitcase out of the glass case and open it. They search theside pockets. Maybe Hana left something that would be a clue. Nothing. Theylook under the polka-dot lining. There are no hints there either. Fumiko promises the children to do everything she can to find out about the girl who owned the suitcase, to solve the mystery. And for the next year, she becomes a detective, scouring the world for clues to the story of Hana Brady. Read more