In 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan, marked "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931." The center's curator, searches for clues to young Hana and her family, whose happy life in a small Czech town was turned upside down by the invasion of the Nazis.

Reviews

Gr 5-8-This award-winning Holocaust story (Whitman, 2003), based on a Canadian Broadcasting radio documentary produced by Karen Levine, has a unique connection to Japan. Hana Brady, a Czech girl, had a suitcase which ended up in the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center decades after her murder in Aushwitz. On the outside of the suitcase were the words "Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, Waisenkind (orphan). The director of the Center, Fumiko Ishioka, set out on a quest to discover what she could about Hana for the sake of Japanese youngsters learning about the Holocaust. Ishioka travelled to Prague in search of photos, family history, anything at all. Despite repeated disappointments, she eventually located some drawings and a lead to Hana's brother George who survived. He agreed to share his painful memories and personal mementos. The drama builds as chapters toggle between contemporary events and historical details of Hana's life. Listeners will be swept up in Ishioka's emotional urgency. Hana and George Brady's privileged, idyllic youth coupled with the unending kindness of concentration camp inmates oversimplifies the complexity of this biography. Stephanie Wolf handsomely portrays all the characters, invoking a slight Japanese or Czech accent when needed. An additional recording from the documentary allows listeners to hear George Brady and Fumiko Ishioka. The actual actocities of the Holocaust are presented in a more subdued light here than in Jennifer Roy's Yellow Star (Marshall Cavendish, 2006) and Elie Wiesel's Night (1960).-Robin Levin, Fort Washakie School/Community Library, WY Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.