It is vital that we remember the Holocaust, and it is also vital that we remember the survivors’ stories. Susan Heagy has written a very important children’s book called Why Is Great-Grandma So Sad? Discovering the Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Child, and this book serves as a way to teach children about the Holocaust. The book is geared toward 7 to 14-year-olds, but I believe that people of any age would benefit from reading it.

In the story, a little girl is told why her great-grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, is so sad. Because her great-grandmother was a child during the Holocaust, children will be able to see the Holocaust through another child’s eyes. Though the book retells the horrors of the Holocaust, including living in the ghetto and living in a concentration camp, it is written in a way that is appropriate for children. Heagy writes well, and her illustrations echo the book’s emotion. The end of the book shows seven Holocaust survivors’ biographies. Each of them consists of about one to three paragraphs and a picture of the survivor, showing young readers the faces of real survivors.

This book is so important, because the Holocaust should never, ever be forgotten, and the survivors’ stories should always be heard.

You can find Why is Great-Grandma So Sad? here.