Book Description
for Smoke and Ashes by Barbara Rogasky
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A much-lauded book when first published in 1988, Smoke & Ashes is a powerful examination of Nazi German’s attack on the Jews of Europe in World War II. In this expanded and revised edition, the intensity of the book’s original narrative remains. As does its clarity. Rogasky places the Holocaust in historical context, and carries her discussion through to current events, including the events of September 11, 2001, and continuing anti-Semitism today. Other additions to this edition include mention of gays and lesbians as being among those persecuted by the Nazi’s in World War II, information that was absent in the first edition. Some readers may find Smoke & Ashes emotionally and psychologically painful to navigate. The difficulty of the material is something Rogasky acknowledges in her introduction to both editions: “This book was not written to give you nightmares…To say the truth straight out, this is a book about murder…it is about a time that a nightmare came true.” Archival photographs, maps, and a timeline round out this important work. (Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2003 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2003. Used with permission.