Synopses & Reviews
Based on the author's radio documentary of the same name, a biography of a Czech girl who died in the Holocaust is told in alternating chapters with an account of how the curator of a Japanese Holocaust center learned about her life after Hana's suitcase was sent to her. An ALA Notable Children's Book. Reprint.
Review
"The text is well written, moving, and accessible; the photos are involving and the format is well designed."
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Synopsis
In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan. On the outside, in white paint, were these words: Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, and Waisenkind--the German word for orphan. Children who saw the suitcase on display were full of questions. Who was Hana Brady? What happened to her? They wanted Fumiko Ishioka, the center's curator, to find the answers. In a suspenseful journey, Fumiko searches for clues across Europe and North America. The mystery of the suitcase takes her back through seventy years, to a young Hana and her family, whose happy life in a small Czech town was turned upside down by the invasion of the Nazis.