The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible became Possible...on Schindler's List (review)

TITLE:   The Boy on the Wooden Box:  How the Impossible became Possible...on Schindler's List (A Memoir)

AUTHOR:  Leon Leyson with Marilyn Harran and Elisabeth B. Leyson 

PUBLISHER:  Antheneum Books for Young Readers 

COPYRIGHT DATE:  2013 

AGE RANGE:  9-12 years

LEXILE LEVEL:  1000L

ACCELERATED READER:  Level 7 Points 7



SUMMARY:

“Not even the scariest of fairytales could have prepared me for the monsters I would confront while just a boy of ten…Or for the hero, disguised as a monster, who would save my life.”  (p. 7)

Leon Leyson was born Leib Lejzon in rural Poland.  He came from a Jewish family:  father, mother, two brothers and one sister.  His parents remembered the first World War, “the Great War””, but nothing could have prepared them for World War II and Hilter’s seemingly unending rise to power.  Suddenly, Nazi soldiers were everywhere.  Jewish people lost their homes, their jobs, their ability to feed their families, and their lives.

Leon’s family moved from home to ghetto to concentration camp.  Their fate would have been much worse had it not been for one man:  Oskar Schindler.  Osker Schindler was a Nazi businessman and factory owner.  Many thought he was a scoundrel.  Others thought he was a drunk.  He held parties at his factories until all hours of the night.  But, Oskar Schindler did one thing that others wouldn’t do—he hired Jewish workers and then he protected them.  He is single-handedly responsible for saving more than 1,000 Jewish people (whom he thought of as “his children”) during World War II.  He is the only member of the Nazi party to be buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.  He requested this burial site because, as he said, “My children are here”.  (p. 196)

CRITIQUE:  
  
I learned so much reading this book.  Oskar Schindler is a hero—a savvy, unlikely hero who risked his well-being and fortune time and time again to save the very people the Nazi’s were out to destroy.  

As a work of nonfiction, the subtitle does state that this book is a memoir.  The title verso states, "This work is a memoir.  It reflects the author's recollections of his experiences over a period of years."  This book flows from Mr. Leyson's memory.  It is a first-person account of an awful time in history.  There are no footnotes or references until you reach the epilogue in the back of the book.  There, the author supplies photographs of his ID card as a displaced person, his name on Schindler's list, places his family lived during the war, and pictures of his family with Oskar Schindler himself.  

REVIEW:

Goodreads.com gave it 4.34 stars stating "This, the only memoir published by a former Schindler’s List child, perfectly captures the innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable. Most notable is the lack of rancor, the lack of venom, and the abundance of dignity in Mr. Leyson’s telling."  (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17415480-the-boy-on-the-wooden-box)

AWARDS:

Amazon.com Best Books of the Year 2013: Ages 9-12 
2014 Sydney Taylor Honor Book, Younger Readers 
ALA 2014 Notable Children’s Books, Middle Readers 
2013 Cybils Awards, Young Adult Nonfiction, Finalist 
2014 Christopher Award Winner, Ages 10 & up 
2014 IRA Teachers’ Choices


RELATED MATERIAL:

In his epilogue, Mr. Leyson refers to a time he was interviewed for the Los Angeles Times newspaper.  He is a link to that article:  http://articles.latimes.com/1994-01-23/news/vw-14701_1_schindler-s-list

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally