Lisbeth Kaiser

May 5, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Hena Khan |Lesa Cline-Ransome |James E. Ransome |Lisbeth Kaiser

The story of the Al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco, narrated by the building itself. In 859, Fatima Al-Fihri, the daughter of a rich merchant, decided to build a mosque and school. “I began as a small corner for books, where Fatima spent hours reading, thinking, and dreaming.” Over time, the library explains that it “grew into a grand building.” The library, which served both Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and Al-Qarawiyyin University, was a tranquil space within bustling Fez.

Jan 16, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Elisa Boxer |Lesa Cline-Ransome |James E. Ransome |Lisbeth Kaiser

A tree survives the Holocaust, though most of the children who cared for it don’t. It’s winter in Terezin, the Czechoslovakian propaganda camp with which the Nazis tricked the credulous Red Cross into believing their treatment of Jews was humane. Here, children are allowed to attend school, and one teacher, Irma Lauscher, has the children plant a smuggled-in maple sapling. Miraculously, the children keep the tree alive in the camp, even as they themselves weaken or die.