Alone in the Storm
In wartime Budapest, Leslie Vertes escapes from the forced labour service. As he lives under false identity documents, each day he survives feels like a miracle.
In wartime Budapest, Leslie Vertes escapes from the forced labour service. As he lives under false identity documents, each day he survives feels like a miracle.
Written in vignettes with child-like charm and innocence, Where Courage Lives provides rich insight into life in a small village against the backdrop of the war, paying tribute to both Muguette’s indomitable mother and the courage of the people of Champlost.
During the Toronto Dressmakers’ Strike of 1931, young Jewish sisters Sophie and Rose must stand together in their fight for better working conditions, decent wages, and for their union – the ILGWU. Faced with unexpected – and sometimes violent – barriers, they quickly find that a strike is more than just a march.
When Joseph and Devon find money in the schoolyard the two friends have different thoughts about what to do. Should they say "finders keepers" or find out who lost it? It takes some courage, but Devon figures out how to help Joseph make the right choice.
Nate Leipciger, a thoughtful, shy eleven-year-old boy, is plunged into an incomprehensible web of ghettos, concentration and death camps during the German occupation of Poland.
The name Transnistria did not exist on a map. Yet that is where ten-year-old Felicia Steigman and her parents arrive in 1941, after a cruel deportation and death march overseen by Romanian Nazi collaborators.
Miklos Friedman grows up learning to take risks and seize opportunities. In 1944, as Germany occupies Hungary, he must draw on his wits to survive
Kati and her younger sister, Ilonka, arrive in Canada with painful memories from the Holocaust, which has taken both of their parents.
David Newman’s gifts as a musician and a teacher carry him through years of brutality during the war.
Shaun learns to ride his two-wheeler with the help of his friend Nadia and finds that with persistence and courage, nothing is impossible.
Kamal tries everything to avoid his school trip to the live reptile exhibit – everything except admitting that he is scared. His fear of being teased is almost as big as his fear of reptiles. Finally, in desperation, Kamal communicates his fears in a way everyone understands, and is able to get the confidence he needs to face his fears.
Six girls just out of high school spend the summer of 1943 on a farm, doing the work of the men who are off fighting the war in Europe. We follow the stories of Helene, Peggy, Binxie, Isabel, Jean, and the mysterious "X." Friendship, romance, hardship, and heartbreak shape their summer, all against the backdrop of the Second World War.
“I kept asking myself, Was all my suffering worth it? Was it worth staying alive? Nobody was left—no family, no friends . . . Then I remembered that I had Josio and thanked God for that. We joined hands and started walking, ready to face the future."
In 1984, Claire Baum receives a letter from a stranger in Holland who has found a package from the war that belongs to Claire’s family.
What keeps 15-year-old Gerta Solan going in the Auschwitz children’s barracks is dreaming of the normal life that had been torn from her.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki’s speech at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio caught the attention of the world. She and her friends raised money to travel to Rio, never imagining the effect they would have there. Severn's story is about the power of children, and how their voices can stand out above the politics and cynicism of adults.
"Two close calls in one day were enough for me. I realized that the uprising was not like the games I played with Jóózek before the war. This was a very real battle, in which people were being killed and wounded."
