Brown, Don. Run and Hide: How Jewish Youth Escaped the Holocaust. Don Brown, Illus. Clarion, 10/2023. 192pp. Graphic. Trade $22.99. 978-0-3585-3816-5. GRADES 7–12. HIGH ADDITIONAL.
The heartbreak, violence, and destruction caused by Nazi Germany is immeasurable, but Brown’s focus on the Jewish children swept up in the Holocaust gives readers a breathtaking glimpse into the abyss. Layering historic facts with first person quotes, readers are thrust into dozens of life and death situations, as individual kids and their helpers seek to escape the Nazi death machine. Brown’s sketched figures and scenes are filled in with painterly washes of color in richly subdued tones. Bright splashes of red highlight the Nazi insignia, flames, and blood. The balance and pace of three quarters of the book is flawless, but while visually strong, the opening handful of pages suffer from some wordy and repetitive language and one singularly unfortunate spelling error. (A hapless woman is forced to wear a humiliating sign mistranslated as “course pig.”) An author’s note balances the successful escapes with the statistic that 90% of European Jewish children did not survive. Source notes and bibliography are included.
Melissa McAvoy—Retired