Book Detail

My Secret Camera

Publication Information
Author:  Smith, Frank Dabba Illustrator:  Grossman, Mendel (Photo.)
Title:  My Secret Camera Date:  2000
Publisher:  Harcourt City:  San Diego, CA
ISBN, paperback:  0-15-202306-2 ISBN, hardback:  

Recommended audience:
ABE/ABLE:   Yes ESOL:   Yes
Family:   Yes Young Adult:  
Picture:   Yes

General Information:
Book Type(s):    photodocumentary, photographic essay, easy reading, nonfiction

HSE Descriptor(s):    social studies

Summary:
As a young man in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, Mendel Grossman, secretly took hundreds of photographs to document the miserable life of the people in the ghetto and their struggles for survival. Simple text accompanies the photographs.

Teaching Ideas:
This book belongs in text sets about WW II, the Holocaust, photography, or survival. It would work especially well with The Children We Remember. Look in the library for A Vanished World by Roman Visniak, another photographer of ghetto life during the Nazis. The text is very easy, accessible for low level readers. Students may want to discuss the "stories" that photos tell and how they preserve history. The illustrations are haunting. Both the introduction and the note about Grossman's life are worth reading to learners. Look at some of the excellent Holocaust web sites to learn the full story of what happened to these people. (www.ushmm.org/)

Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
bullet Art and Photography > photography
bullet Ethnic Groups > Jewish
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > determination/perseverance
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > loss
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > emotions > relocation, personal
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues
bullet Hardships > survival
bullet History > topic > war > World War II > Holocaust
bullet History > topic > war > World War II > concentration/internment camps


Ohio Aspire

Contact us

Ohio Aspire
p: 800.765.2897 option 2
p: 330.672.2007 option 2
f: 330.672.4841
ohiopdn@literacy.kent.edu

Explore more resources at:

Ohio Aspire
PDN Library