It Rained Warm Bread

July 1, 2019
Says young Moishe Moskowitz: "The wolves are coming" to Poland, "a country that has no use for us. / A country that bullies its citizens / beats up on us because we are different." The Nazi wolves soon reveal their plans: the ghetto, concentration camps, death marches. Smith's spare, eloquent verse is complemented by occasional watercolor sketches. An author's note from Moskowitz-Sweet offers more about her late father on whose memories this historical-fiction verse novel is based.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2019
In this historical-fiction verse novel, says young Moishe Moskowitz: The wolves are coming to Poland, a country that has no use for us. / A country that bullies its citizens / beats up on us because we are different. And soon the Nazi wolves reveal their plans: the ghetto, forced-labor camps, concentration camps, death marches. Smith tells Moishe's story in the first person, in spare, eloquent verse. They are trying to erase us / as if we are scribbles on a chalkboard. Throughout, however, Moishe keeps in his heart his father's words, Where there is hope, / there is life. Such hope comes in the form of Janek, the neighbor who hides Moishe's family in his barn; the Auschwitz kapo who inexplicably protects Moishe; and, finally, a group of women in Czechoslovakia who, risking their own lives, toss loaves of bread into the open cattle car transporting Jewish prisoners. It is life. / It is bread, / still warm from the oven. / It is raining warm bread. This last act restores Moishe's faith in humanity ( when the wolves come to take you away, / one good person is all you need ) and helps give him the courage and strength to survive the last brutal weeks of the war. Occasional watercolor-wash sketches complement the poems, adding a memorable visual dimension. An author's note by Moskowitz-Sweet tells more about her late father Moishe, on whose memories this novel is based. dean Schneider

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from May 15, 2019
Moishe Moskowitz's painful experiences in the Holocaust are expressed in brief, gut-wrenching poems. Moishe knows fear; he must avoid the Polish boys who will beat him for being Jewish. When the Nazis come in 1939, the danger grows exponentially, but they "could not have imagined such evil" would engulf them. Moishe views the Nazis as prowling, voracious wolves, and that metaphor is used throughout the poems. Changes come quickly: yellow stars, disappearances, and forced labor. They are driven from their home and pushed into a ghetto, followed by liquidation, murders, and deportation to the concentration camps. His family is torn from him, as "the Nazis peel us like onions," his mother and sister, father, brother. He endures unending deprivation and starvation. Kindness is rare and punishable by death, but a Christian friend hides the family in the early days, a political prisoner gives him a bit of extra food, and, near the end, a group of Czech women throw warm, fresh bread into the cattle cars. Gray-toned thumbnail sketches can only hint at the devastating emotions. Moishe's daughter provides the story, as told to her by her father, and entrusts Smith to pen poems that strike at the heart of each moment, each fear, each horror and make it personal for readers even as time erases witnesses. A deeply moving, beautifully written portrayal of an evil that cannot be allowed to be forgotten. (author's note) (Historical verse fiction. 10-adult)

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