Hiding Edith by Kathy Kacer Date of Publication: 2006 ISBN: 9781897187067 Number of Pages: 152

REQUIRED READING ABILITY: Junior: Average Intermediate : Low/ Average
GENRES: Non-fiction/Historic fiction
THEMES : Good versus Evil - Life versus Death – Family - Prejudice - Loyalty - Appearance versus Reality - Coming of Age - Survival - Isolation

SUMMARY:
Edith Schwalb is just a little girl in Austria when Adolph Hitler comes to power and starts persecuting Jewish people. Her family has to move constantly from country to country, trying to avoid being captured or worse. When her father is taken in the middle of the night from their home in southern France, Edith's mother knows she has to do something desperate. She makes arrangements for the eleven-year-old Edith and her younger brother, Gaston, to be hidden in a house run by the Jewish Scouts of France. A young couple, Shatta and Bouli Simon, run the home, but it is truly safe only because the entire town of Moissac, where the house is located, is in on the conspiracy. The mayor warns Shatta whenever the Nazis are planning a raid, and the children escape to the forests nearby on a "camping trip." Unfortunately, even the good neighbours in the town can't protect the children from everything, and when the Nazis become even more determined, Edith most continue her journey for survival on her own...

WHO WOULD LOVE THIS BOOK? A kid who...
- loves learning about World War II
- loves real stories about real people
- likes stories with a great message
- likes real photographs included in the story, to help visualize the events, people, and places


WHAT ELSE?
This story is a Silver Birch nominee for 2006, and is a fascinating true account of Edith Schwalb Gelbard's early years as a hidden child of the Holocaust, in the "House at Moissac."