Fireflies+in+the+Dark

1. From whose perspective are these stories told? //I Never Saw Another Butterfly// is told from the perspective of children who were in Terezin Concentration Camp. This book links well with //Fireflies from the Dark// by Susan Goldman Rubin, a biography of a Jewish woman deported to a camp.

2. What life lesson did you learn from these books? Friedl Dicker Brandeis was a Jewish woman who was deported to Terezin Concentration Camp. Told that she was able to bring a suitcase that weighed forty pounds to the camp, she filled her suitcase with art supplies. An artist, she knew that the children at the camp would need them – and she was right. //Fireflies in the Dark// tells her story and presents an uplifting tale of the camps, a view of the Holocaust that few people know about. Filled with many artistic and professional people, Terezin Camp had nightly lectures and programs. People put on plays (the most famous being Brundibar) and performed. These artistic outlets were their means to survival. Brandeis worked with children, having them draw pictures and write poems about their drawings. Many of those drawings and writings survived and paint for us today a portrait of children’s minds. Some children were able to transcend the horrors of the camp. Others wrote about their experience in the camps. Their words are often chilling.

3. What did you like most about this book? The uplifting view and strength of the people make these books standouts in Holocaust literature for children and young adults.

4. How does this text relate, if at all, to //Parallel Journeys//? With so much depressing about the camps as Helen painted the picture, these books show readers another side to how Jewish people coped.

5. How could you use this book to teach the Holocaust? Both books are great read alouds. The poems also are primary resources that students can explore.

6. Would you recommend this book to a friend? YES.