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A Family Secret

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A Family Secret
by Eric Heuvel
Juvenile Graphic Novel
62 pages
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2009

Jeroen is a young boy not much interested in family history until he stumbles upon his grandmother's scrapbook from World War II. As his grandmother tells the story of her best friend, a Jewish girl, whose family was seeking shelter in the Netherlands, he is completely fascinated. He learns that the young Jewish girl eventually had to go into hiding as her parents were taken away to a concentration camp. Jeroen's grandmother never saw her best friend again, but what an impact that relationship had on her life and now her grandson's just from hearing the story. Originally written in Dutch, this engrossing historical graphic fiction is very accessible to upper elementary and above.
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