One Day: A True Story of Survival in the Holocaust

by Michael Rosen, Benjamin Phillips (Illustrator)

Overview

From an eminent storyteller, this powerful, simply told, beautifully illustrated picture book recounts a rare story of survival during the Holocaust.

One day, a Hungarian-French Jew and his father were rounded up by Nazis and brought to a prison camp. One day, they tried to escape, and failed. One day, they tried to escape, and succeeded. In a true story that resonates with his own family legacy, Michael Rosen, one of today’s most esteemed poets and authors of books for children, draws on the real-life account of Eugène Handschuh, who escaped with his father from a convoy headed from Nazi-occupied Paris to Auschwitz. At once honest, approachable, and speaking to the resilience of hope, One Day features sensitive illustrations by award-winning artist Benjamin Phillips, as well as a note from the author providing historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536238945
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	01/07/2025
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.94(w) x 11.88(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Michael Rosen received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for services to children’s literature in 1997 and served as Children’s Laureate in the UK between 2007 and 2009. His books include the worldwide bestseller We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, the award-winning Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, illustrated by Quentin Blake, and The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II. The author has a personal connection to the story of One Day, as his family members were in the convoy that Eugène Handschuh traveled in, though not among the group who escaped. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Benjamin Phillips is an illustrator and artist with Jewish heritage who works in ceramics, drawings, and paintings. His artwork for the graphic novel Alte Zachen was short-listed for the 2023 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration. Benjamin Phillips lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

In this direct, unadorned telling from Rosen (Bear’s Big Dreaming) and Phillips (Alte Zachen/Old Things), emotionally spare text respects readers’ ability to bear witness, while ink, charcoal, and pencil drawings convey both immediacy and enormity, plunging readers into a world where nothing is assured.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The writing is concise yet powerfully descriptive. . . A moving story appropriate for a younger audience. This is an essential purchase.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Specific details evoke chilling realities: exact dates, the names of fellow prisoners, the French citizens who provided help, and the number of their transport train: Convoy 62. The somber ink, charcoal, and pencil illustrations aptly reinforce this testimony from a survivor who resolved to keep living, even if just for one day.
—Booklist

From the Publisher