The Feather-Bed Journey

The Feather-Bed Journey

From School Library Journal Grade 1-4-Rachel and Lewis play tug-of-war with grandma's old pillow one windy day and suddenly it comes apart. The children, grandma, and grandpa scramble after the feathers that fly up in the air, trying to retrieve them. When it grows dark and the search is abandoned, grandma tells the youngsters the history of the pillow-how it was once a featherbed and that now it is all she has left from her childhood in Poland. Acrylic and pastel paintings that combine realistic and impressionistic styles illustrate the text. Less disturbing than Jo Hoestlandt's excellent Star of Fear, Star of Hope (Walker, 1995), and less didactic than Jacqueline Jules's The Grey Striped Shirt (Alef, 1995), Feder's touching story is just right for introducing the Holocaust to young children.Marcia W. Posner, Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, Glen Cove, NYCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. Grandma tells Rachel and Lewis a moving story about the journey of a feather bed that became a beloved pillow for a little Jewish girl and her family in Poland during World War II. From Booklist Ages 5^-8. When Rachel and Lewis accidentally rip open Grandma's old feather pillow, they are puzzled by her great concern. She explains that the small pillow was once a large feather bed that belonged to her family in Poland. A child during World War II, Grandma and many other children kept warm with the feather bed in the crowded ghetto where they lived. The bed remained when Grandma left--first to hide with a Polish family, later to survive with others in the woods. At the end of the war, she was reunited with her mother and emigrated to the U.S. Eventually the bed (now reduced to pillow-size, the result of a fire) made its way back to its original owners, and Grandma has treasured it ever since. Feder's simple text meshes nicely with Schuett's acrylic and pastel artwork, providing young children with an emotional and thoughtful glimpse at a tragic chapter of history. Useful for introducing the Holocaust to primary listeners, this may also spur children to discover their own family stories. Kay Weisman