As budget returns this fall Survivors Club is high on the purchase list. This is a topic that the grade eights study each year. That is stories of war and courage and this is just what the teacher is looking for in terms of length, topic and format. It is also a book that will do well all year round.

I'm really glad so many of these stories are finally being told and making their way into world. I think it would make an good addition to classrooms and libraries. 6th grade up would find it inspiring and informative. It's an amazing story. I had no idea children so young could even survive those camps. Michael Bornstein was truly blessed to have made it.

Survivors Club is a fascinating story from a view point not often told. I have read many stories from this time and found this one to be unique because of it's perspective. This is such a heartbreaking story - full of tragedy as well as love. Regardless of what you know about this period of history, you will find something new in Survivors Club. I highly recommend it

Survivor’s Club by Michael Bornstein and Deborah Bornstein Holinstat is listed as a nonfiction novel for Middle Schooler. I found it very interesting as an adult and found the style and language very appropriate for a middle school student. The story was told by Michael Bornstein and written by his daughter Deborah. Together, they did research with relatives and others who could fill in the unknowns. The story was told as unemotionally as possible with the subject matter, although the information (even the worst) was told. Michael was the youngest survivor from Auschwitz and through the work of his family and others was hidden/saved from some of the worst. I found the courage and resilience in the story insightful. Survivor’s Club, a nonfiction story of the Holocaust is a great read.

This is the account of Michael Bornstein's life in Poland during WWII and his survival as a prisoner at Aushwitz. What is truly amazing is that he was only 4 when he was at Aushwitz. Miraculous indeed that he survived. The book tells of his experiences before, during, and after the war.

I greatly appreciated his honesty and how he worked with his daughter to write the book. I will make sure this book finds a home in either my district's jr. high or high school library.

This book makes me very excited about being a librarian. I look forward to putting it into as many hands as possible, because I don't think it's possible to read it without learning from it. It is, of course, incredibly painful to read, but given the state of America these days, it's a pain we need to experience. This is an important book.

Full review on goodreads. Well done story with a. Nice mix of fact, research, and what-may-have-been.

Survivors Club : The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bornstein is a memoir written for middle schoolers, but its a story for all. I personally had a lot of emotions reading it, but the story was so moving and I couldn't put it down. It's told in first person and I can't imagine what life was like for him and his family during that time.

Kids need to read book's like this so that these stories won't be forgotten! I think this would be a great book for schools, libraries, and even for a home library.

5*****

Michael Bornstein was born in 1940, just when things were starting to get bad for Jewish residents in Poland. His family saw horrible things happen in their town, and various family members reacted in different ways. An aunt and uncle left their daughter at a convent, hoping that she would escape notice there. Michael, his mother, father, brother, and grandmother ended up at a work camp where they were treated fairly well, but when it closed, they were sent to Auschwitz. There, Michael managed to survive through a combination of determination (his mother made him hide in the women's barracks so she could watch out for him) and luck (he was in the infirmary when inmates were sent on a death march). His father and brother were killed, and his mother sent to work at another factory, so when the camps were liberated, he and his grandmother made their way back to their hometown, only to find their home occupied by someone else. They lived in an abandoned chicken coop even though some relatives managed to survive and make it back to their farm. Eventually, Michael's mother returned, and took him to the United States.

This was a particularly helpful book for understanding the scope of what families went through. While every story is different, Bornstein's contains a variety of elements that are common. It's helpful to see what life was like for the family before and after the war. I particularly enjoyed reading about how all of this information came together through Bornstein's research, and the story is told in an interesting way.

I always think I have enough books about World War II, but when a particularly good one comes along, it's great to see. The best part of this was perhaps the sense of optimism that pervades the book. Yes, horrible things happened, but sometimes the key to surviving is to hope for the best.