From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall

Rating:
Summary: Good coverage of the holocaust for eighth grade and up
Review: Good account of holocaust experience without being too graphic for younger readers. We used this in an eighth grade classroom for a language arts project. The kids were a little bogged down in the section after Marian emigrates to the U.S. They could better relate to the account of his experiences as a youth. A solid account for adults, as well.

Rating:
Summary: An Angel On His Shoulder
Review: This is a well-written book, the main interest of which lies in its unemotional and almost off-handed anecdotal details. While the author, naturally, focuses on the events of his and his family's life, a succession of incredible details leave an invaluable impression of life in pre-war Warsaw, in death camps, post-war Germany, and 1950s America. The subject, Marian Filar, is a classical concert pianist and I found especially moving his description of devotedly studying under the great German pianist Walter Gieseking in the American Zone of Germany immediately after the World War Two. Anyone interested in a straight-forward, unself-conscious memoir of displacement will appreciate this book.