One Day: A True Story of Survival in the Holocaust

Description: "The writing is concise yet powerfully descriptive...A moving story appropriate for a younger audience. This is an essential purchase." --School Library Journal (starred review)

From an eminent storyteller, this powerful, simply told, beautifully illustrated picture book recounts a rare story of survival during the Holocaust.

One day, a Hungarian-French Jew and his father were rounded up by Nazis and brought to a prison camp. One day, they tried to escape, and failed. One day, they tried to escape, and succeeded. In a true story that resonates with his own family legacy, Michael Rosen, one of today's most esteemed poets and authors of books for children, draws on the real-life account of Eugène Handschuh, who escaped with his father from a convoy headed from Nazi-occupied Paris to Auschwitz. At once honest, approachable, and speaking to the resilience of hope, One Day features sensitive illustrations by award-winning artist Benjamin Phillips, as well as a note from the author providing historical context.

Review Quotes: In this direct, unadorned telling from Rosen (Bear's Big Dreaming) and Phillips (Alte Zachen/Old Things), emotionally spare text respects readers' ability to bear witness, while ink, charcoal, and pencil drawings convey both immediacy and enormity, plunging readers into a world where nothing is assured.
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The writing is concise yet powerfully descriptive. . . A moving story appropriate for a younger audience. This is an essential purchase.
--School Library Journal (starred review)

Yoto Carnegie Medal nominee Phillips' lovely ink, pencil, and charcoal illustrations match the text tonally. . . . A valuable tribute to the spirit of resistance.
--Kirkus Reviews

Specific details evoke chilling realities: exact dates, the names of fellow prisoners, the French citizens who provided help, and the number of their transport train: Convoy 62. The somber ink, charcoal, and pencil illustrations aptly reinforce this testimony from a survivor who resolved to keep living, even if just for one day.
--Booklist