Newbery Medal (John Newbery Medal)
The Upstairs Room
The Upstairs Room is a 1972 Holocaust survivor autobiography by Johanna Reiss documenting her childhood in occupied Holland during the Nazi invasion.
Work Information
The Upstairs Room is a 1972 Holocaust survivor autobiography by Johanna Reiss documenting her childhood in occupied Holland during the Nazi invasion.
The Upstairs Room is a 1972 Holocaust survivor autobiography by Johanna Reiss documenting her childhood in occupied Holland during the Nazi invasion.
Book Information
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- 1972-01-01
- Pages
- 208 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.67 x 1.96 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780690851274
- ISBN-10
- 0690851278
- Price
- 17857 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Children's Books/Growing Up & Facts of Life/Difficult Discussions/Prejudice & Racism
Newbery Honor Book • ALA Notable Book • An SLJ Best Book • A Jane Addams Award Honor Book • Winner of the Jewish Book Council Children’s Book Award A classic WWII survivor story based on award-winning author Johanna Reiss’s own childhood during the Holocaust. When the German army occupied Holland in 1940, Annie was only eight years old. Because she was Jewish, the occupation put her in grave danger. Most people thought the war wouldn’t last long, but Annie knew that if she wanted to stay alive, she would have to go into hiding. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered refuge to Annie and her older sister, Sini. For two years they hid in the cramped upstairs room of the Oostervelds’s remote farmhouse. There, Annie and Sini would struggle to hold on to hope—separated from their family and confined to one tiny room—as a frightful and seemingly endless war raged on outside their window. This classic autobiographical novel is a strong choice for classroom sharing and independent reading.
Johanna Reiss was born and brought up in Holland. After she was graduated from college, she taught elementary school for several years before coming to the United States to live. Her first book for children, The Upstairs Room, was a Newbery Honor Book, an American Library Association Notable Children's Book, and a Jane Addams Peace Association Honor Book, and it won the Jewish Book Council Juvenile Book Award and the Buxtehuder Bulle, a prestigious German children's book award.Mrs. Reiss writes that soon after she had finished Tie Upstairs Room, she found "there was still something I wanted to say, something that was as meaningful to me as the story I had told in the first book, the story of a war. `The fighting has stopped'; `Peace treaty signed,' newspapers announce at the conclusion of every war. From a political point of view, the war is over, but in another sense it has not really ended. People are fragile. They are strong, too, but wars leave emotional scars that take a long time to heal, generations perhaps. I know this to be true of myself, and of others. And out of those feelings came The Journey Back, a story of the aftermath of the Second World War."Though Mrs. Reiss lives with her daughters in New York City, they make frequent visits to Holland to visit Mrs. Reiss's sisters, Rachel and Sini, and Johan and Dientje Oosterveld.
Reviews
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Perfect for kids curious about the Holocaust. No graphic descriptions of its horrors.
Well written novel for children about the Holocaust seen through the eyes and understanding of a 10 year old Jewish girl who survived. A perfect novel to introduce children gently to a beginner's understanding of the Holocaust without any graphic descriptions of its horrors.
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Five Stars
Having just returned from Amsterdam and visited Anne Frank's house a very interesting read
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Read as a child. Still holds up
It's a very quick and easy read because it's written from the standpoint of a child. When I first read it, I was younger than the author in the book. Something in a passing conversion some 30 years later made me think of it and, with modern technology, I was able to have it on my phone in seconds, and read mostly on two sittings. Emotionally it's a more difficult read now. I have two daughters now and the world seems no safer from tyranny. These are important lessons, because, regardless of the state of the world, we must have hope and children. These two are inextricably linked. And no matter the season of evil in the world, both can and will survive.
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Great book
I read this book in middle school, and it was great I loved it. It was a great way to how Jewish people were treated in Germany in the war, I don't think that it's based on 2 people specifically.
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The Upstairs Room - We Loved it!!
My daughter had to choose a summer reading book and I am so glad she chose The Upstairs Room! She has struggled with reading in the past but I could tell that she loved this book because she would give me every detail about what she read. I decided to read it for myself because she was so into it. It was a great story and we both learned a lot from it. When we finished it, I immediately purchased the sequel, The Journey Back, which I read in almost one day and she began reading immediately too. It is a true story and we were so drawn to Annie, her sisters, and of course the amazing Oosterveld family that saved her. These are definitely two books we will both always remember! I'm so glad we got the Amazon/Kindle versions so we could see the pictures at the end along with the interactive maps of the houses she once lived in and how they look today. I also visited the author's website at JohannaReiss.com and we were able to send her a message and tell her how much we enjoyed her story and these books. We Loved these books and will definitely recommend them to anyone, young and old. I'm sure they will touch your heart as they did ours!