"HANNELORE, YOUR PAPA IS DEAD." In the spring of 1942 Hannelore received a letter from Mama at her school in Berlin, Germany--Papa had been arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Six weeks later he was sent home; ashes in an urn. Soon another letter arrived. "The Gestapo has notified your brothers and me that we are to be deported to the East--whatever that means." Hannelore knew: labor camps, starvation, beatings...How could Mama and her two younger brothers bear that? She made a decision: She would go home and be deported with her family. Despite the horrors she faced in eight labor and concentration camps, Hannelore met and fell in love with a Polish POW named Dick Hillman. Oskar Schindler was their one hope to survive. Schindler had a plan to take eleven hundred Jews to the safety of his new factory in Czechoslovakia. Incredibly both she and Dick were added to his list. But survival was not that simple. Weeks later Hannelore found herself, alone, outside the gates of Auschwitz, pushed toward the smoking crematoria. I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree is the remarkable true story of one young woman's nightmarish coming-of-age. But it is also a story about the surprising possibilities for hope and love in one of history's most brutal times.

Five years ago Jane Stern was a walking encyclopedia of panic attacks, depression, and hypochondria. Her marriage of more than thirty years was suffering, and she was virtually immobilized by fear and anxiety. As the daughter of parents who both died before she was thirty, Stern was terrified of illness and death, and despite the fact that her acclaimed career as a food and travel writer required her to spend a great deal of time on airplanes, she suffered from a persistent fear of flying and severe claustrophobia. But a strange thing happened one day on a plane that was grounded at the Minneapolis airport for six horrible, foodless, airless hours. A young man on a trip with his classmates suddenly became dizzy and pale because he hadn’t eaten in many hours, and there was no food left on the plane. Without thinking about it, Jane gave him the candy bar that she had in her purse. A short time later the color had returned to his cheeks, the boy was laughing again with his friends, and Jane realized that this one small act of kindness—helping another person who was suffering—had provided her with comfort and a sense of well-being. It was shortly thereafter that this fifty-two-year-old writer decided to become an emergency medical technician, eventually coming to be known as Ambulance Girl. Stern tells her story with great humor and poignancy, creating a wonderful portrait of a middle-aged, Woody Allen–ish woman who was “deeply and neurotically terrified of sick and dead people,” but who went out into the world to save other people’s lives as a way of saving her own. Her story begins with the boot camp of EMT training: 140 hours at the hands of a dour ex-marine who took delight in presenting a veritable parade of amputations, hideous deformities, and gross disasters. Jane—overweight and badly out of shape—had to surmount physical challenges like carrying a 250-pound man seated in a chair down a dark flight of stairs. After class she did rounds in the emergency room of a local hospital, where she attended to a schizophrenic kickboxer who had tried to kill his mother that morning and a stockbroker who was taken off the commuter train to Manhattan with delirium tremens so bad it killed him. Each call Stern describes is a vignette of human nature, often with a life in the balance. From an AIDS hospice to town drunks, yuppie wife beaters to psychopaths, Jane comes to see the true nature and underlying mysteries of a town she had called home for twenty years. Throughout the book we follow her as she gets her sea legs and finally bonds with the burly, handsome firefighters who become her colleagues. At the end, she is named the first woman officer of the department—a triumph we joyously share with her. Ambulance Girl is an inspiring story by a woman who found, somewhat late in life, that “in helping others I learned to help myself.” It is a book to be treasured and shared.

This book is based on a commencement address the author gave at her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College. It would be easy to dismiss this book as a typical commencement speech. It is typical in how it details some of the pivotal events and people who influenced and changed the author's life at Sarah Lawrence and beyond. The message is typical as it questions the future and as the author asks the predictable questions such as what and who will I become? But the book reaches deeper as the author describes some key characteristics that helped her to become not just a better writer, but a better human being. Her real life examples of how staring, listening (being unplugged from Ipods and cell phones), being still and not hurrying away from strangers has changed her life in ways that she never could have imagined. Her plea to us to notice details, chat and listen to the people around us is a positive and strong message of community. I love this message because none of us has gotten where we are today, alone. It is similar to the intention we develop as we practice yoga. This turning inward to know ourselves first as we do in our youth, later becomes a turning outward to embrace the people and world around us as we age. I really thought this book was terrific and hope that the students at Sara Lawrence appreciated it!

In “Don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight” Alexandra Fuller recounts her childhood in such war-torn countries as Zimbabwe and Zambia. She and her family moved to Africa when she was 2 due to her father’s jobs managing farms there. She has many tragic stories as 3 of her siblings died young and her mother slipped into a deep depression and later was diagnosed as manic depressive. But there are funny stories too such as the 3 day party after Alexandra’s wedding. We are constantly reminded of the danger of living in war zones. When Alexandra (or Bobo as she is called by her family) goes to school she is driven in a mine-proofed Land Rover and the family carries guns to protect themselves. Once she leaves Africa, she finds she misses it terribly and describes quite well the sounds and smells of the country.

I loved this book of poems written out of feelings and thoughts the author experienced after the World Trade Center bombing. The other ongoing theme is strength in the human spirit as well as the humanity we share while we age both gracefully and without regret.

Louise Bourgeois (1911- ) is a controversial artist known for her personal sculptures which helped to break down the barriers from the male-dominated art world. The book traces her troubled childhood in France and a move to the US in 1938 where she married Robert Goldwater, an art historian

You may not want to eat meat after reading this book. This is an expose and history of the fast food industry. In 1970 Americans spent 6 billion dollars on fast food. By 2000 that number had increased to 110 billion dollars. Almost every facet of American life has been franchised: Taco Bell, Gap, Starbucks, McDonalds, and other similar entities can be found everywhere on our interstate highway system and in urban and suburban areas. Schlosser details what constitutes a hamburger and makes you think twice about eating beef in particular

Who was Stalin? He was a choirboy, weatherman, published poet, seminarian, bank robber, politician, eight-time exile to Siberia, psychopath, lover, politician, newspaperman, boot-maker, mass murderer, intellectual, ruler of a vast country, and most intensely of all, a revolutionary. His story started in a small town in Georgia as the son of an alcoholic cobbler and an overbearing mother. He survived disease, fights, being run over by a carriage—twice, a society full of violence, and turbulent political times. His poor health allowed him to become an omnivorous reader, who concentrated on reading about politics, philosophy and history. Using many different aliases, he worked with or against most of the main political figures of the period including Trotsky and Lenin. Employing previously suppressed journals and papers as well as interviews with those who knew Stalin personally, Montefiore has written an amazing book with details of Stalin’s life before he ruled the USSR.

This humorous book describes the working life of zookeeper Peter Brazaitis. At age 18, to get back at his stepmother, he bluffed his way into an assistant zookeeper job at the Reptile House of the Bronx Zoo. He learned on the job and became Superintendent of Reptiles, and later Curator of Animals at the Central Park Zoo. There are thrills and scares as well as funny stories: escape attempts by gorillas, dangerous activities like catching alligators in the New York water system, assisting police with an apartment full of venomous snakes which also contained human victims, close calls with poisonous snakes, and the intelligence of primates when attempting to put one over on their human keepers. These stories show the details of a life working with animals.

This is the story of Gemma, a girl who experiences the death of her mother in India and goes off to boarding school in England. But Gemma soon discovers that there is much more to her mother's life than she knew. With the help of three girls Gemma meets at school, Gemma not only uncovers information about her mother, she realizes there is much more to the power she herself possess. But the power isn't everything that Gemma anticipates, and she must make some tough decisions regarding her friends, her mother and the course of her own life in 19th century England.

Written about the 50th anniversary of a softball game played by 6th graders in 1949 in Oregon, and told by the girls who played the game, the book portrayed feelings about World War II between the girls themselves, their parents, and the two small towns where the girls were from. Also gave history about the rivalry between Barlow Road Grade School, and Bear Creek Ridge Grade School, a permanent scoreboard was placed at the general store, and the game was talked about all the time.

The first game was played in 1899 and started because women from the two towns wanted to stop all the fighting, which had been going on since the towns were built and settled. That’s the reason there were two small towns -they fought about everything – what side of the river to build on, where the roads would go, the Church, who should teach, everything.

The women decided enough was enough, and it was time to get along. There was only one woman still alive from the first game, and she had watched every one since. Some of the girls had relatives who played in earlier games, even MVP’s! The girls have try-outs, and train all year for the game, and if not in the starting line up, all have a role to play.

The game comes to a climax when a player from the Barlow team, (Shazam) whose father was killed at Pearl Harbor, plows into the Japanese first baseman, (Aki) from the Bear Creek team, breaking her jaw.

Hearing from all 21 players and coaches requires a bit of work to follow, but the reward is worth it.

This was a very enjoyable historical fiction for teens. It was recommended to me by one of our teen staff members and I know I would have loved it 20 years ago. The book tells about the life of a young girl with a naturally beautiful voice during a time of Spiritual oppression in Italy. The Catholic Pope has issued an edict that females are not allowed to sing in public. This dashes the hopes of this young girl who wants to move the world with her voice, but not the hopes of her scheming mother who plans to use her daughter's talent to raise her own standing in the world. The choices are few for this young woman. She can marry the strange old man her mother choses, join a convent for wayward women, or go into the protection of Queen Christina, patron of the arts who defies the pope. This is a story of perseverance and ambition; the dedication and drive of true talent. I especially appreciated the message that there are more important things in life than true love. I think teenage girls should be reading about all that life holds for them rather than the allure of romance.

This powerful book won an American Bestsellers Award in 1940 and was made into a film version in 1971. Joe Bonham joins the military during WWI and he is injured beyond comprehension. He loses his limbs, his hearing, and his face. All he has left is his mind. He has flashbacks to his childhood and coming-of-age experiences. Trumbo inserts philosophical and ethical points in his “great American novel” which is on par with the writing of Ernest Hemingway and Norman Mailer. This is the quintessential anti-war book. You may not be able to read it. You may not be able to put it down. Engrossing read.

Report on Hannah Meyer Hannah Meyer. Israelite. Twenty-three years of age. Seamstress and resident of Judengasse. Stature above medium, habit meager and with signs of emaciation. Chestnut-coloured hair, eyes brown and downcast. Physiognomy sad and unchangeable. Phlegmatic temperament. Disposition gloomy…………… On March 9 she was admitted into the Institute for the Insane and Epileptic. She refuses to speak but will walk and do whatever is directed of her………./ Chapter 2 page 13.

This book is shockingly horrific! Set in a German asylum in the mid 1800’s, Dr. Hoffmann uses all the barbaric methods at his disposal. He finally resorts to psychotherapy. Having lost all hope and believing this approach to have no value, he begins talking about his own life, hoping to draw Hannah out of the mind where she has locked herself.

The story of her life and his, and that of several other patients and staff, entwine and unfold to reveal the sadness and difficulties of a very prejudiced society. The divisions of race as well as status and wealth are shown clearly. The selfish nature of human kind can be clearly seen in the hatred and cruelty they show each other. I wanted to know the whole story but at times the horror of those who treated the insane was insanity itself.

Each chapter is begun with a document; letter, case log, newspaper article, clinical review, which gives you the structure of its history and a clearer picture of the clinical profession. This story is strong in setting, character, and in language that makes you feel the despair and sorrow of the characters. No clear plot, unless you count the one we all endure every day, just surviving life.

A small Vermont town in 1924 finds its residents pitted against each other when the Ku Klux Klan moves in and deep prejudices surface. The novel is written in the stream-of-conscience format and it features the thoughts of a variety of people.