It is something all children need to understand eventually. It's a valuable account of history and is a gut-wrenching look at what evil humans are capable of. It is definitely not something I would hand him and expect him to process on his own. For example, one boy kills his own father as he fights him for a piece of bread.

It may be hard for a child to read this and understand the response to trauma. While mild language for the scenes, my child is going to have a LOT of questions while reading this book. Idek jumped, turned and saw me, while the girl tried to cover up her breasts.' He moved one hundred prisoners so he could copulate with this girl!. Now I understood why Idek refused to leave us in the camp. '.of Idek and a young Polish girl, half naked, on a straw mat. There also is a part where the main character comes upon a guard having sex with a woman, and because he witnessed this, he was lashed with a whip. (In fact, this affection was not entirely altruistic there existed here a veritable traffic of children among homosexuals, I learned later.)' Immediately after our arrival, he had bread brought for them, some soup and margarine. Here is one example: 'Like the head of the camp, he liked children. There are several mentions of guards preying on younger boys.

I normally trust the parent reviews on this site, so I wanted to be sure to note they are incorrect on there being nothing sexual in this book. It already is an upsetting topic, but it does not soften the blows, so be prepared if you have a sensitive child/teen. This one was assigned for my son's junior high homeschool curriculum, and I am struggling with the choice based on the themes, references and difficult to process evil that is described.

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