Hana's+Suitcase

 Ciera Thompson Diann Daigle


 * Please answer each of the following questions about the book you read. You may number your responses or answer them in paragraph form. Provide your answers on the page linked to your book title.

1. From whose perspective is the story told? (A Jew? A Nazi? A survivor? A Righteous Gentile? A Descendant of a survivor?) What are the benefits of getting the story from this perspective?


 * This story is told from the curator of the Tokyo holocaust education resource center and by A Jewish girl named Hana.

2. What life lesson did you learn from the plot of this story?
 * That the perseverance does not have an age limit, because I the book a young girl has the courage to get thru her situation.

3. What did you like most about this book?
 * It was interesting heartfelt book, based on a true story.

4. How does this text relate, if at all, to //Parallel Journeys //? It relates because they are both the stories of the holocaust. And we are hearing the stories from first hand experience. Hana’s brother George relocated to Canada as did Alfons.

5. How could you use this book to teach the Holocaust? To show a first hand experience of what happened to people especially children during the holocaust.

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

Please answer each of the following questions about the book you read. You may number your responses or answer them in paragraph form. Provide your answers on the page linked to your book title.

1. From whose perspective is the story told? (A Jew? A Nazi? A survivor? A Righteous Gentile? A Descendant of a survivor?) What are the benefits of getting the story from this perspective? //Hana’s Suitcase// has two stories going on at the same time. Hana’s story is told from the perspective of a young Jewish girl that lived in Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust. It tells of her life before the Nazis entered her town, her being made to stay home from school and not seeing her friends, her parents being taken away from her, her ultimate being taken with her brother George to a child concentration camp, and her eventual death by a gas chamber in Auschwitz. The other story occurring is the one of the curator of the Tokyo Holocaust Resource Center and her determination to find information on the suitcase that it obtained for the museum, //Hana’s Suitcase//. Fumiko Ishioka travels to several different places looking for information on Hana. The two different perspectives and the alternating between them engage the reader more into this heartbreaking story.

2. What life lesson did you learn from the plot of this story? The life lesson I learned was to make the most of every day, because you never know what will happen tomorrow. This book makes me hug my son every time I read it!

3. What did you like most about this book? The thing I liked the most about //Hana’s Suitcase// was the amazing tribute that the small wings did for George Brady. It was very touching and really showed how much the kids cared about the Bradys.

4. How does this text relate, if at all, to //Parallel Journeys //? In //Parallel Journeys//, Alfons moved to Canada as does George in //Hana’s Suitcase//. Both books have two stories occurring at the same time. Also, the reader is able to see the differences between the female concentration camps. Hana was in a camp for girls only, and Helen was in a women’s only camp. On a side note, I found it particularly interesting that both Hana and Helen have a moment with staying clean, in that Hana tries to clean herself up before she sees her brother for the last time and Helen tries to keep herself as clean as possible while in the labor camp!

5. How could you use this book to teach the Holocaust? This book gives such a great overall view of the events of the Holocaust from a child’s perspective. I would use it as a secondary resource for my class. I would also integrate an art project into my curriculum, such as everyone painting Hana’s Suitcase and also one for themselves. That way they could connect even further with Hana’s experiences!

6. Would you recommend this book to a friend? It is definitely on my recommend list. Actually, I already have! BY: Diann Daigle and Ciera Thompson