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The Boy on the Wooden Box

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
"Much like The Boy In the Striped Pajamas or The Book Thief," this remarkable memoir from Leon Leyson, one of the youngest children to survive the Holocaust on Oskar Schindler's list, "brings to readers a story of bravery and the fight for a chance to live" (VOYA).
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. Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance, and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow.

Ultimately, it was the generosity and cunning of one man, Oskar Schindler, who saved Leon Leyson's life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings, by adding their names to his list of workers in his factory—a list that became world renowned: Schindler's list.

Told with an abundance of dignity and a remarkable lack of rancor and venom, The Boy on the Wooden Box is a legacy of hope, a memoir unlike anything you've ever read.
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  • Reviews

    • School Library Journal

      Starred review from February 1, 2014
      Gr 4-9-In an intimate look at one family on Oskar Schindler's famous "list," Leyson's (born Leib Lezjon) memoir (S & S, 2013) begins with his earliest memories of his poor but idyllic life in a Polish village. His large Jewish family was short on money, but never on love or a sense of purpose and belonging. They eventually move to Krakow, a city that Leib finds enchanting. When the Nazis invade, however, life becomes desperate for the 10-year-old protagonist, his parents, sister, and three brothers. By sheer happenstance, Leib's father becomes a worker for Schindler, beginning a chain of improbable events that leads to Leib's survival, despite pogroms, ghettos, and Nazi work camps. Young Leib's feelings of fear, dread, and despondency are relayed simply. Narrator Danny Burstein speaks in decorous, measured tones, yet sounds conversational. The words have power, no embellishment is necessary. Despite the horrific subject, Burstein imparts Leyson's peaceable nature and even delivers a natural-sounding laugh or chuckle when relating the rare bright spots. Leyson here shares only his own memories and does not speculate or pontificate on the larger story. If he does not know the fate of a relative or friend, that uncertainty, too, is part of his story. Randomness, luck, and split-second actions that delineated life and death-these are the truths of the Holocaust, and of those on Schindler's list. A moving and heartfelt conveyance of Leyson's gratitude to his family and to Oskar Schindler.-"Lisa Taylor, Ocean County Library, NJ"

      Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 1, 2013
      Leyson, who died in January at age 83, was No. 289 on Schindler’s list and its youngest member. He was just 13 when Leyson’s father convinced Oskar Schindler to let “Little Leyson” (as Schindler knew him) and other family members find refuge in the Emalia factory; Leyson was so small he had to stand on a box to work the machinery. Leyson and his coauthors give this wrenching memoir some literary styling, but the book is at its most powerful when Leyson relays the events in a straightforward manner, as if in a deposition, from the shock of seeing his once-proud father shamed by anti-Semitism to the deprivation that defined his youth. Schindler remains a kindly but enigmatic figure in Leyson’s retelling, occasionally doting but usually distant. Leyson makes it clear that being “Schindler Jews” offered a thread of hope, but it never shielded them from the chaos and evil that surrounded them. Readers will close the book feeling that they have made a genuinely personal connection to this remarkable man. Ages 9–14. Agent: Peter Steinberg, the Steinberg Agency. (Aug.) ■

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1000
  • Text Difficulty:5-7

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