Rating: 
Summary: An important photographic document
Review: "My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto" combines the photographs of Mendel Grossman with a simple text by Frank Dabba Smith. Grossman was one of the many individuals who suffered under Nazi rule before and during World War II. Using his camera, he carefully documented the lives of the Jews who were confined by the Nazis to the Lodz ghetto.Grossman's photographs in this book capture many haunting images: the despairing faces of the trapped people, two children harnessed like animals to a cart, people waiting on a bread line. But the fact that Grossman's stark visual testament survived the Holocaust is ultimately inspiring. This is an important book for teachers and parents to share with young readers.
Rating:
Summary: An important photographic document
Review: "My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto" combines the photographs of Mendel Grossman with a simple text by Frank Dabba Smith. Grossman was one of the many individuals who suffered under Nazi rule before and during World War II. Using his camera, he carefully documented the lives of the Jews who were confined by the Nazis to the Lodz ghetto. Grossman's photographs in this book capture many haunting images: the despairing faces of the trapped people, two children harnessed like animals to a cart, people waiting on a bread line. But the fact that Grossman's stark visual testament survived the Holocaust is ultimately inspiring. This is an important book for teachers and parents to share with young readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Hidden Holocaust Images
Review: Grainy black and white photographs taken secretly by Mendel Grossman in the Lodz ghetto are the entire strength of this book. The words are almost superfluous as these haunting images make clear the pain, the suffering, the humanity and tremendous urge for life in this incredible prison.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Important Document on the Holocaust
Review: I bought this book because the boy on the cover bears a striking and uncanny resemblance to every member of my family. Took it home and cried for hours. Unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Important Document on the Holocaust
Review: I bought this book because the boy on the cover bears a striking and uncanny resemblance to every member of my family. Took it home and cried for hours. Unforgettable.
Rating: 
Summary: A grim visual reminder but very weak text...
Review: Mendel Grossman did humanity a great service in risking his life to bring the world visual proof of the horrific tragedies within the Lodz ghetto during the holocaust. Unfortunately the text of this book is written in such an over-simplified style that the publisher's targeted age range; 3rd thorough 5th graders are easily bored by it. Aside from a few weak descriptions of these powerful images, I felt besieged by Frank Smith's one-sided listing of war facts. Smith's prose melodramatically recites the war's background from a narrow perspective that seems designed to inflame young readers about the suffering of only one race. With so many other races alongside the Jewish people targeted for Nazi genocide, I felt that a more sober and complete narrative about this tragic time in history would have provide the book with the necessary facts to place it among the best of it's genre. My Secret Camera deprives its readers of a powerful chance to merge the photography of this Jewish ghetto and a first-hand historical account of this terrible time in history. After reading and owning so many incredible and moving Jewish and non-Jewish authored books about the holocaust, I can only recommend you purchase this book for it's pictures - it's not worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Hidden Holocaust Images
Review: My Secret Camera : Life in the Lodz Ghetto shows life in the Lodz Ghetto through the eyes of young man who didn't survive the Holocaust. The pictures in the book show a small sliver of how life was for the Jews held captive in the Lodz Ghetto. Teachers whose students read the book Daniel's Story by Carol Matas will want to have at least a classroom copy of this book. The Lodz Ghetto is the main character Daniel was sent. Daniel was a photographer much like Mendel Grossman who took the photographs in this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Simple but Moving Story
Review: My Secret Camera : Life in the Lodz Ghetto shows life in the Lodz Ghetto through the eyes of young man who didn't survive the Holocaust. The pictures in the book show a small sliver of how life was for the Jews held captive in the Lodz Ghetto. Teachers whose students read the book Daniel's Story by Carol Matas will want to have at least a classroom copy of this book. The Lodz Ghetto is the main character Daniel was sent. Daniel was a photographer much like Mendel Grossman who took the photographs in this book.
Rating:
Summary: My Secret Camera..a good classroom resource
Review: My Secret Camera : Life in the Lodz Ghetto tells a shares photographs and limited text depicting the event in Lodz Ghetto. This would be a good classroom book for younger children because it tells the tale of being in the Ghetto rather then the concentration camp. Some students think of the persecution of Jews during WWII as only happening in the camps. If your students are reading Daniel's Story by Carol Matas in class, you will want to have a copy of My Secret Camera since Daniel is sent to the Lodz Ghetto. The two books fit together nicely.
Rating:
Summary: My Secret Camera..a good classroom resource
Review: My Secret Camera : Life in the Lodz Ghetto tells a shares photographs and limited text depicting the event in Lodz Ghetto. This would be a good classroom book for younger children because it tells the tale of being in the Ghetto rather then the concentration camp. Some students think of the persecution of Jews during WWII as only happening in the camps. If your students are reading Daniel's Story by Carol Matas in class, you will want to have a copy of My Secret Camera since Daniel is sent to the Lodz Ghetto. The two books fit together nicely.
| 
