Swastikas keep appearing on the walls of Chokecherry Middle School and throughout the small Colorado town. So, the students comes together in solidarity to honor those who lost their lives in the Holocaust by creating a paper chain of 6 million links. They also need to figure out who among them keeps vandalizing the school with this symbol of hate while the whole town confronts a potential dark past as news spread around the world about the recent events that puts them in the media spotlight.
This would be a great book for fifth or sixth graders as an introduction to what the Holocaust was and the meaning behind the swastika as a symbol of hate. Korman also does a good job of weaving in lessons of empathy, acceptance, and forgiveness. It would be a great book for character education. This actually happened in our middle school, so this book was very timely for us. We did a lunch in the library discussion with a group of sixth graders who seemed to like the book. I thought the story dragged a bit at times, but I do like how the chapters are narrated from the points of view of the characters in order to give readers different perspectives on the situation.
This would be a great book for fifth or sixth graders as an introduction to what the Holocaust was and the meaning behind the swastika as a symbol of hate. Korman also does a good job of weaving in lessons of empathy, acceptance, and forgiveness. It would be a great book for character education. This actually happened in our middle school, so this book was very timely for us. We did a lunch in the library discussion with a group of sixth graders who seemed to like the book. I thought the story dragged a bit at times, but I do like how the chapters are narrated from the points of view of the characters in order to give readers different perspectives on the situation.
