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Hanna's Suitcase | LitPick Book Reviews
Hanna's Suitcase
Hana's Suitcase: The Quest to Solve a Holocaust Mystery
Hanna's Suitcase
Karen Levine
This award-winning true Holocaust story, newly updated, connects generations through one woman’s quest to find the truth behind a mysterious suitcase.   In March 2000, Fumiko Ishioka, the curator of a small Holocaust education center in Tokyo, received an empty suitcase from the museum at Auschwitz. On the outside, in white paint, were the words “Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, Orphan.”   Fumiko and the children at the center were determined to find out who Hana was and what happened to her all those years ago, leading them to a startling and emotional discovery.   The dual narrative intertwines Fumiko’s international journey to find the truth about Hana Brady’s fate with Hana’s own compelling story of her life in a quiet Czech town, which is shattered by the arrival of the Nazis, tearing apart the family she loves. This suspense-filled work of investigative nonfiction draws in young readers and makes them active participants in the search for Hana’s identity.   Praise for Hana’s Suitcase • “Hana wanted to become a teacher, and surely through this little book her dream is being realized.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from his new foreword to Hana’s Suitcase • “The account . . . is part history, part suspenseful mystery . . . with an incredible climactic revelation.” —Booklist

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Historical Fiction
  • Mystery

Age Level: 

  • 8 - 12
Profile Picture

In Tokyo, Japan in 2000, Fumiko Ishioka recieves a beaten up suitcase with the words Hana Brady, orphan and a date. Fumiko is the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Center, and she is determined to find out who Hana Bradyl was and what her story holds. She not only wants to find out for herself but she wants to help explain to a group she leads called "Small Wings." This is a group of teenagers that volunteer at The Holocaust Education Resource Center teaching other children about the Holocaust, in an effort to prevent anything like it from happening again.

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