Hana's Suitcase

by Karen Levine

Book Overview

This award-winning true Holocaust story, newly updated, connects generations through one woman's quest to find the truth behind a mysterious suitcase. In March 2000, Fumiko Ishioka, the curator of a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807531480
• ISBN13: 9780807531488
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
• Length: 111 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.8" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Hana’s Suitcase

(Made the terrible mistake of reading this during our time of Coronavirus quarantine, so my feelings are a little of higher anxiety after reading.... ) Before even becoming a Jewish convert, I had such a connection with the Holocaust, so this was on my list to read among many. What a well put together book telling the journey of information. I love how the story came together. Time seemed to be on everyone’s side, completely meant to be, so that Hana’s story could be told.

Inspiring hope out of the most hopeless of tragedies

This book reveals a young child's mystery in a way that incites joy, despite sorrow. The journey of Hana as it parallel's the journey of Fumiko and her students brings a vanishing story immediately to life. It is accessible for a young reader, and deeply meaningful for a reader at any age. The marriage of the book and the play in one publication offers two perspectives of one story, adding exponential depth through two unique windows to the same landscape. Bravo Emil Sher & Karen Levine for one incredibly complete package!

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

HANA'S SUITCASE ON STAGE is the definitive version for those interested in reading this remarkable story for the first time. Containing both the original story, Hana's Suitcase, written by Karen Levine, and the play version by well-known playwright Emil Sher, this is a must-have for your keeper shelf. Hana's Suitcase is the story (bestselling, I might add) of a suitcase that arrived at a children's Holocaust education center in Tokyo in March of 2000. Written in white paint on the outside of the suitcase was the name Hana Brady, the date of May 16, 1931, and the word Waisenkind, which is German for orphan. Of course the children at the center immediately wondered who Hana was, where the suitcase came from, and who had sent it to them. It was up to the center's director, Fumiko Ishioka, to find the answers to those questions, and many more. What follows is Mr. Ishioka's search, throughout Europe and North America, to find out any information he could about Hana Brady -- and that fateful suitcase. In Emil Sher's play version, the story is the same, but brought vividly to life by his playwriting. Perfect either as a story to read or as inspiration for a school drama club, this is the play that you don't want to miss. Kudos to such a great version: HANA'S SUITCASE ON STAGE is great! Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

Not only for children

Even if the targeted audience is children, but this book is also much interesting for adults. It's so well written that you'll feel somebody is telling you this story lively. I've a better understanding of the impact of war from this book. The ending is rather sad, unluckily it's also a true story.

seamless connection between then and now

Youngsters ages 10-14 will enjoy the suspense that Levine builds as we follow Japanese curator Fumiko on her quest to find the owner of a Jewish child's suitcase entrusted to her Holocaust Museum for a children's exhibit. Levine weaves the mystery and intensity of Fumiko's modern-day search with touching, but not overly sentimental, stories from Hana's past from 1938-1944. We begin to care for Hana and her family, while simultaneously unravelling the clues that lead Fumiko into the past. Children will enjoy the simultanous stories, which are easy to follow. Teachers or parents will love to see their children watching Fumiko at work, bringing alive the real work of historians, and bringing little Hana's legacy to life. Inclusion of Hana's drawings made in the Terazin ghetto, as well as photographs of Hana and her family in Czechosolvakia, and photos of Fumiko and her children's group, give the book something extra special. Over 60,000 people have seen the museum exhibit that inspired the book, and I'm sure that it will be millions once this book is *truly* discovered!

Great book about a girl from the Holocaust

This book was so sad! It is about this suitcase that arrives to a Holocaust Center in Japan and the story behind the little girl who used own it. The curator Fumiko crosses half the planet to find out what happened to Hana as she was taken from her home and killed just because she was Jewish. I really didn't understand what happened at the Holocaust until I read this book. Hana Brady had a normal life until the war started. Do we really need to destroy people's lives with a war, again?