The Secret Buttons

The Secret Buttons by Ellen Shapiro

Take a fascinating journey - from Austria under Nazi occupation, to pre-WWII rural England, to Brooklyn, New York - with Anni and Rosie Blum, talented girls who come alive and come of age on the pages of The Secret Buttons.

Anni is twelve years old when she and her little sister Rosie travel alone to England from Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria. Their father is in a concentration camp and their mother cannot get the right papers to enter another country. The borders are closed to Jews, so the girls depart to live with distant cousins wearing silk dresses their mother remade to disguise them as "Aryan" holiday travelers. They carry forged passports and Domestic Servant visas, the only way they can legally enter the United Kingdom. On the train, they knit and practice English sentences, not knowing what lies ahead. They arrive in a country that's deep in preparations for war. Because the girls speak German, the local children accuse them of being Nazi spies. And that's just the beginning of the challenges they face. Over the next three years of blackouts and bombings, they find their places in the world-and ultimately use their talents and creativity to help solve a very grown-up problem.

"This moving, timely story challenges gender stereotypes of timid, needy girls. The Secret Buttons will inspire our children - and all of us - to be brave and resilient in the face of evil." - Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Gender & Women's Studies

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The Secret Buttons

The Secret Buttons by Ellen Shapiro

Take a fascinating journey - from Austria under Nazi occupation, to pre-WWII rural England, to Brooklyn, New York - with Anni and Rosie Blum, talented girls who come alive and come of age on the pages of The Secret Buttons.

Anni is twelve years old when she and her little sister Rosie travel alone to England from Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria. Their father is in a concentration camp and their mother cannot get the right papers to enter another country. The borders are closed to Jews, so the girls depart to live with distant cousins wearing silk dresses their mother remade to disguise them as "Aryan" holiday travelers. They carry forged passports and Domestic Servant visas, the only way they can legally enter the United Kingdom. On the train, they knit and practice English sentences, not knowing what lies ahead. They arrive in a country that's deep in preparations for war. Because the girls speak German, the local children accuse them of being Nazi spies. And that's just the beginning of the challenges they face. Over the next three years of blackouts and bombings, they find their places in the world-and ultimately use their talents and creativity to help solve a very grown-up problem.

"This moving, timely story challenges gender stereotypes of timid, needy girls. The Secret Buttons will inspire our children - and all of us - to be brave and resilient in the face of evil." - Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Gender & Women's Studies

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The Secret Buttons

The Secret Buttons

The Secret Buttons

The Secret Buttons

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Overview

The Secret Buttons by Ellen Shapiro

Take a fascinating journey - from Austria under Nazi occupation, to pre-WWII rural England, to Brooklyn, New York - with Anni and Rosie Blum, talented girls who come alive and come of age on the pages of The Secret Buttons.

Anni is twelve years old when she and her little sister Rosie travel alone to England from Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria. Their father is in a concentration camp and their mother cannot get the right papers to enter another country. The borders are closed to Jews, so the girls depart to live with distant cousins wearing silk dresses their mother remade to disguise them as "Aryan" holiday travelers. They carry forged passports and Domestic Servant visas, the only way they can legally enter the United Kingdom. On the train, they knit and practice English sentences, not knowing what lies ahead. They arrive in a country that's deep in preparations for war. Because the girls speak German, the local children accuse them of being Nazi spies. And that's just the beginning of the challenges they face. Over the next three years of blackouts and bombings, they find their places in the world-and ultimately use their talents and creativity to help solve a very grown-up problem.

"This moving, timely story challenges gender stereotypes of timid, needy girls. The Secret Buttons will inspire our children - and all of us - to be brave and resilient in the face of evil." - Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Gender & Women's Studies


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781891328343
Publisher: Visual Language Books
Publication date: 04/20/2025
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 242
File size: 14 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Graphic designer and writer Ellen M. Shapiro heads Visual Language LLC, a New York design firm. A graduate of UCLA's College of Fine Arts, she is the author of two nonfiction books and many articles about personalities, projects, education, and trends in graphic and product design, advertising, photography, typography, and illustration. She has contributed chapters and essays to professional books including Design Literacy, Critical Writings in Graphic Design, The Strategic Designer, Sex Appeal, and The Design Entrepreneur. Her first book, Clients and Designers, was published by Watson-Guptill in 1989. Since then, she's published two editions of The Graphic Designer's Guide to Clients (Skyhorse Publishing, 2014), written essays and firm profiles for Communication Arts, and served as a contributing editor of Print, writing for several issues that won National Magazine Awards. She continues to write and photograph for printmag.com. One of her interests is how poster design reflects and shapes culture, which is reflected in several scenes in The Secret Buttons.Ellen has judged design competitions, lectured widely, and taught at Purchase College, State University of New York; the School of Visual Arts; Parsons the New School; and Pratt Institute. For many years, she has been committed to using the tools of graphic design to help children learn to read, write, and spell. Her award-winning Alphagram Learning Materials are available on Amazon and Etsy.com.
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