The+Cats+in+Krasinksi+Square

 The Cats in Krasinsky Square Author: Karen Hesse Illustrator: Wendy Watson Ages: 7-10 Years Old Pages: 32 Publisher: Scholastic Press; First Edition (September 1, 2004) ISBN: 9780439435406 Hardcover Price: $17.99 Language: English
 * Bibliographical Data **

Karen Hesse was born on August 29, 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland. She attended Towson State College, where she studied poetry, and the University of Maryland where she obtained her undergraduate degree in English, Psychology, and Anthropology. She is a famous American author of books for children and young adults. Hesse incorporates historical backgrounds and settings into many of her published books. Throughout her writing career Hesse earned many awards for her works, such as the Newberry Medal, the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the International Reading association Award, the National Jewish Award, and the Phoenix Award.
 * Author Bibliography **

//The Cats in Krasinski Square //opens with a young girl playing with the abandoned cats of the neighborhood. The young girl lives in the ghetto with her older sister. Her older sister works with her friends to smuggle food to the people who are trapped behind the wall, which is being monitored by the Gestapo. However, the Gestapo learns about the efforts of people to smuggle food across their border. The Gestapo plan to secretly attack and capture those who are taking part in this plan at Krasinski Square with the use of police dogs. However, the young girl’s sister and her friends learn about the Gestapo’s plan and quickly think of another way to smuggle in the food. The young girl wants to help her sister and comes up with a plan involving the cats from the very beginning of the story. The young girl’s plan consists of bringing the cats in bags to distract the dogs and the police away from the food being smuggled. The story ends with the young girl observing a peaceful Krasinski Square.
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">I really liked this book. I would love to have this book in my future classroom because of the historical significance that this story portrays. I think that it is hard for elementary students to learn about historical concepts especially one that portrays such a horrible image of mankind. This book used historical events but put them in the viewpoint of a young polish girl. I liked how the main character was a young girl because she is around the same age as the children who will be reading the book; this means that the same concepts and understandings are taken place. This book allows students to create a simplistic understanding of historical events through the story line involving straw cats and a young girl’s family. The sentences and words used are age appropriate to the 7-10 year olds that should be reading this book. Due to the well-chosen word choices the sentences are not hard to understand. I really liked the use of the light tones of color and brightness of light that is created on certain pages. The images bring in a light tone to the events that are occurring to the characters in the story. Overall, I think this book would be an excellent addition to any classroom library and this would be a good book to use during a lesson or unit about holocaust disasters.
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//<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">The Cats in Krasinski Square //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">is a good book that clearly presents the development of a plot. This story begin with a pleasant picture of a young girl playing with the abandoned cats in her neighborhood, however at the same time there is important information pointed out that will leads to the climax. For example, in the opening it is mentioned that there is “no food to spare” and the people that used to love the cats can no longer take care of them; they are left to find fend for themselves. As the story continues we learn that the setting takes places in a Ghetto and that the main character is polish. More details lead to the climax, like how her sister is “brave” because she “smuggle[s] food inside the Ghetto” which is very dangerous. The problemoccurs when the Gestapo learns about the plan to smuggle food and then make their own plan to stop them. The characters must now think of another way to help those who are trapped inside the walls. The young girl wants to desperately help her sister figure out a different plan, she goes around the streets flaunting her “Polish look” through Krasinski Square. As she is on her walk she spots the cats roaming the streets and an idea comes to her. The new plan was to use the cats to distract the Gestapo to smuggle the food. The plan works out smoothly, yet a little chaotic due to all of the animals running around. And the story finishes with the young girl walking through a peaceful afternoon in Krasinski Square, where “the music from the merry-go-round floats in the air”. This story opens with many details that quickly lead up to the climax of the story. The rise to the climax is short, but it is done in a well-organized way so that the reader doesn’t feel that the rise to the conflict was rushed. There is lengthy amount of time spent on the climax of the story and the problems that arise. Then there is a slow decrease in the events after the climax occurs, slowly ending in a peaceful way, just like the story started.
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