The Cats In Krasinski Square

karen hesse wendy watson

Newbery medalist Karen Hesse tells a harrowing, true story about life in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII.

When Karen Hesse came upon a short article about cats out-foxing the Gestapo at the train station in Warsaw during WWII, she couldn't get the story out of her mind. The result is this stirring account of a Jewish girl's involvement in the Resistance. At once terrifying and soulful, this fictional account, borne of meticulous research, is a testament to history and to our passionate will to survive, as only Newbery Medalist Karen Hesse can write it.

Genres picture bookshistorical fictionholocaustchildrenscatsworld war iiwarfictionpolandhistorical

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1,2004

Literary awards

koret jewish book award, california young readers medal,

Places

warsaw ghetto, poland, warsaw, eastern europe,

This edition

Format: 32 pages, Hardcover
Published: August 1, 2004 by Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439435406
ASIN: 0439435404
Language: English

About the author

karen hesse

Karen Hesse is an American author known for her children's and young adult literature, often set in historical contexts. She received the Newbery Medal for Out of the Dust (1997), a verse novel about a young girl enduring the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Hesse's works frequently tackle complex themes, as seen in Witness (2001), which explores the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in a 1920s Vermont town, and The Music of Dolphins (1996), which tells the story of a girl raised by dolphins. Her novel Stowaway (2000) is based on the real-life account of a boy aboard Captain Cook's Endeavour. Over her career, Hesse has received numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002 and the Phoenix Award for Letters from Rifka (1992).