The Secret of the Village Fool [Hardcover]

The true story of Anton, laughed at and called a fool in his small village, who proves himself a hero when he hides a Jewish family from the Nazis during the Holocaust.A hero comes in an unlikely package.Milek and his brother Munio live in a sleepy village in Poland, where nothing exciting seems to happen. They reluctantly do as their mother asks when she asks them to visit their neighbor Anton, knowing that the rest of the village laughs at him because of his strange habits of speaking to animals and only eating vegetables. Things change quickly when war comes to their town in the form of Nazi soldiers searching for Jewish families like that of Milek and Munio. Anton refuses to tell the soldiers where to find them, and then goes so far as to hide the family in his own home, putting his life at risk without a thought. Based on a true story. Upjohn makes this true story personal, immediate and accessible without resorting to bathos or sentimentality. Benoit's sepia-tinted, ominously shadowed illustrations convey darkness, fear and uncertainty...Powerful and deeply moving. Upjohn...shines. With a reporter's eye for action and detail, she brings alive the horror, deprivation, and even boredom that the hidden Jews face while Anton, who never sheds his oddness, bravely denies their presence to both the Germans and the anti-Semitic villagers. Beautiful, evocative illustrations painted in a subdued palette mirror the tone of the story...Because it is a true story and provides photographs of the people involved in an Afterword, young readers will be likely to make connections to their own lives and families. Read like a picture book, with thought-provoking and reflective coloured illustrations by award-winning illustrator Renné Benoit, this story is based on true events. Intended for a younger elementary school age audience, The Secret of the Village Foolcould be read in a classroom, or with a caregiver, leading to a discussion of the Holocaust. The clê