Eureka!

Escaping into the Night

Publication Information

Author: Friedman, D. Dina

Illustrator:

Title: Escaping into the Night

Date: 2006

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

City: New York

ISBN, paperback:

ISBN, hardback: 978-1-4169-8648-5

Recommended audience:

ABE/ABLE: Yes

ESOL:

Family:

Young Adult: Yes

Picture:

General Information:

Book Type(s): historical fiction

HSE Descriptor(s): social studies

Summary:

Thirteen year old Halina escapes from a Polish ghetto to a forest community of Jews where she and her friends Batya and Reuven learn to survive despite brutality, extreme hardship, and loss of family. Although this book is fiction, there were real communities like the one memorialized in this book and the movie entitled Defiance.

Teaching Ideas:

This book belongs in a small but powerful text set on relocation camps. That Reuven and Halina each defy community edicts to leave friends behind "for the greater good of the group" lends itself to an Agree/Disagree strategy. Students might enjoy discussing and writing about the discord between the two leaders in the forest camp. How the character of Reuven changes or how music aids Halina make for an interesting character sketches. Whether read aloud, silently or both, using the Think-Pair-Share strategy will introduce inferential and evaluative thinking and promote disussion. A book such as this begs for written responses: letters to the author, character journals. Further research on the forest communities can be done through the National Museum of the Holocaust.

Teaching Strategies: