Title: It Rained Warm Bread
Author: Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet
Publication: March 2, 2021
Publisher: Square Fish
Genre: Children’s Fiction, Holocaust
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads
A middle grade novel in verse about Moishe Moskowitz’s Holocaust survival story.
Moishe was thirteen when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 and he was sent to Auschwitz. His home was ravaged, his family torn apart by illness and abduction. Years of brutality drew on as Moishe moved from one labor camp to the next. Finally, towards the end of the war and at the peak of Moishe’s deepest despair, a simple act of kindness by a group of courageous Czech women redeemed his faith that goodness could survive the trials of war: That was the day it rained warm bread.
REVIEW:
In my opinion, any book about the Holocaust has the potential to absolutely wreck you. This powerful survival story about Moishe Moskowitz is no different.
Half of me wanting to read this book was to try and discover why it got the title it did. Knowing Moishe was subject to Nazi torture, I thought, if he gets any bread at all, it will probably be stale, right? Well, that would be if he got the bread from the Nazis, but the warm bread comes in an unlikely spot in the story, as a group of women extended kindness toward Moishe and several others when you pretty much wanted to count Moishe out.
This book is a quick but worthwhile read. It’s told in verse, which, in my opinion, helped it to go especially fast. I would definitely recommend it to anyone, whether they gravitate toward learning about the Holocaust or not because I believe educating yourself about this horrific time in history is imperative. For those who love history and reading about the Holocaust, pick this up immediately, and you won’t be sorry!
