This book is inspired by the work of Jella Lepman. Jella was a woman who thought after the war that Germany’s kids needed books as much as they needed food and shelter. They needed a way to feel safe and comfortable. This book is about two children who experience her book exhibit, and how that helped take their mind off their hunger and community destruction. This book was simply lovely, and the real-life efforts that are talked about in the back as well as how the organization still lives on today. This is a must have a book for every library collection. ( )

This book is a wonderful biography that is a fictionalized version of a very real story.

I love books like this - picture books with lots of tales to tell! Books like these would have made me way more interested in history as a child!

The Lady with the Books follows Jella Lepman, a woman who traveled to Germany in the 1940s and participated in an exhibit of international children's books. It's a story of hope during the war, and is a truly marvelous book to pick up.

There's also a little German-English dictionary at the front that shows you German words, their English meanings and how to pronounce them.

I didn't like the pictures as much as I liked the story. I found the pictures to be rather odd and just didn't vibe with me. They still work well and are quite colourful, but they aren't my style.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. ( )

This picture book for kids is based on the real story of Jella Lepman, born in Germany but who had to escape in 1936 because of Nazi persecution of Jews. After the war, Jella returned to her home and was given the job, as the author relates in the Afterword, of helping German children adjust. The author writes: “She decided that, as much as food, books were what the children needed.” She created a traveling book exhibit consisting of children’s books from around the world. Eventually, her work evolved into both the International Youth Library and the International Board on Books for Young People.

This story imagines a fictional child, Anneliese, who takes her little brother Peter to see the books. The books they read helped the children dream again, and think about a brighter future.

Illustrations by Marie Lafrance are lovely, albeit not exactly a true-to-life depiction of the devastation and starvation in post-war Germany. ( )

Name: The Lady with the books
Author: Kathy Stinson, Marie Lafrance
Genre: Children Fiction
Review: Eye catching cover. It is based on the true story of Jella Lepman. This story is fictionalized retelling of how a woman who brought a world of books to children in Germany after World War II, and changed their lives forever.
“Let us set this
upside-down
world right again
by starting with
the children.
They will show
the grown-ups
the way to go.”
— Jella Lepman, 1945
The illustrations are really good and attracts the attention of the reader's. This story tells the importance of books in one's life.
Though it is hopeful and optimistic for the reader, the books needs some editing. I felt disappointed with the ending, though it is as real and positive as it can be. ( )