Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust

Hidden: A child’s Story of the Holocaust

Written by Loic Dauvillier, Illustrated by Marc Lizano and Greg Salsedo

Published By First Second, New York, NY

2012

Reading Level: Lexile- 300, Grade- 3

Winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award 2015

“Holocaust, hiding, France, separated, concentration camp”

Suggested Delivery: independent reading paired with whole class discussion and social studies lesson 

Electronic Resources:

1.   https://kidskonnect.com/history/holocaust/

This resource provides a kid-friendly version of information about the holocaust. The language is simplified and focuses on how the Nazi’s came to power and how the Jewish were discriminated against and forced out of their homes. This resource reflects a lot of the main events that the book covers and would be a great way to have students read about the holocaust before reading to build comprehension.

2.  http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collection/holocaust-collection-teaching-resources

This site provides tons of useful and interesting teaching suggestions for teachers. The site contains ideas for classroom activities, teaching resources, lesson plans across the disciplines and much more for teachers to use to help teach the holocaust.

Teaching Suggestions:

1. Vocabulary:

• Holocaust: destruction or slaughter on a mass scale
• Victory: an act of defeating an enemy or opponent in battle or competition
• Display: to show something in a place where it can be easily seen
• Protect: to keep safe from harm or injury
• Sulk: to be silent or bad tempered out of annoyance or disappointment
• Humiliating: causing someone to feel ashamed and foolish by injuring their dignity and self-respect
• Traitor: a person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc.
• Pleasant: giving a sense of happy satisfaction or enjoyment

2. Before, During, and After Reading Strategies:

Before Reading

Since the subject of the Holocaust may be a little unfamiliar to some third grade students, introduce the book by asking students to create a KWL chart as a class. Ask the students what the Holocaust is and to jot down on sticky notes what they know about it. Then, ask the students to write down what they would like to learn from the book or lesson about the Holocaust. By creating the KWL chart the students will gain a sense of purpose in reading and build some background knowledge before reading.

During Reading:

The book is told from a narrator’s point of view who leaves a lot of events and feelings open for inference from the reader. Create and inferential comprehension anchor chart that reminds students how to make inferences in the story. Since this is a graphic novel, the illustrations can be very helpful in making inferences as well. Use lines from the text that require comprehension ad in a whole class discussion, have the students make inferences on what the text truly means and record their responses on the anchor chart.

After Reading:

Using this page which provides many short biographies of children from the holocaust, (https://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/main.htm) . Encourage students to red about other stories that may be similar to Douina’s experiences. Ask the students to write a letter to one of the children they read about and how their biography affected them. The letter should contain specific details from the time period as well as the child’s biogrpaphy

 Writing Activity:

Have students further explore graphic novels by having them create their own graphic novel. Give students the opportunity to brainstorm ideas, create storyboards with illustrations that help to tell the story, and add dialogue and narration. Once students complete their graphic novel, encourage them to publish their work.