This is poignant and so beautifully illustrated. It's the perfect way to introduce the little ones to finding hope in the dark times, and to the power of words. Kathy Stinson's illustration style perfectly complements this wonderful but oft-forgotten nugget of history.

This book actually gives us two stories. The first is the gentle and heavily illustrated story for young readers of two people who get irredeemably drawn to a selection of children's books, even though they're living off scraps of orange peel, and pigeon stew if they're really lucky. The second, the appendix that's more for the person reading this aloud or using it as an educational tool, is about the real woman who put the selection together – the wonderful-sounding Jella Lepman, who had the idea that children could be shown a positive future if they could see the best of the world's books for their age range. The institutions and movements she formed in the ashes of Nazi Germany immediately post-WW2 are still going strong, and will be funded by (and most probably be gifted copies of) this volume. I'm just not sure, even if both sides of the book are quite good in their own way, it makes the right balance. Children if they only get the really attractive first half, will probably not be asking themselves 'who got those books together, and where did this woman's ideas come from', but the second half that answers that won't speak to the kids, even if they had asked those questions. I'm now a lot more aware of this fabulous enterprise, but I'm an adult checking out these books for young people. I think said young people could easily have coped with a story for them about Lepman, but when they put this down they'll like as not have only seen the effect she had, which is not the full story.

Wow! What an amazing book. I always love a story about the impact of books on children (and everyone) but this one feels extra special. The best part of the book for me was the history of the lady who inspired this story. What a remarkable woman Jella was. She brought the magic of books to so many children in need.
5 stars for this wonderful story