Classroom Book Sets

Classroom book sets are available for a four-week loan period free of charge. Each set contains 30 copies of the book, a related video and a binder of additional resources and readings. Pick-up and delivery or courier costs are the responsibility of the teacher.

Contact us for more information or to book a classroom book set.

THE BASKETBALL GAME

Written by Hart Snider
Art by Sean Covernton

This graphic memoir tells the story of an epic basketball game between kids at Jewish summer camp and students of the notorious Holocaust denier and antisemitic conspiracy theorist, James Keegstra.

In the summer of 1983, nine-year-old Hart is attending Jewish summer camp for the first time. Unbeknownst to him and other campers, Keegstra’s students are invited to the camp for a day of fun, sport and fellowship. The students, previously schooled in anti-Jewish hatred, would meet Jewish kids for the very first time. And a terrified Hart would end up playing in a basketball game he has never forgotten.

Filmmaker and author Hart Snider uses humour and memoir to deliver a poignant message of hope and tolerance. A study of antisemitism in the modern Canadian context, The Basketball Game explores the power of community to combat stereotyping and bigotry.

This classroom book set contains 30 copies of The Basketball Game along with an educational guide and instructions for streaming the short animated film of the same name.

GOODBYE MARIANNE: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL

After Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, life became unbearable for Jews in Nazi Germany. From November 1938 to August 1939, some 10,000 mostly Jewish children found safety in Great Britain on Kindertransports, or rescue trains. Goodbye Marianne raises important questions about childhood, identity and belonging during the Holocaust through the eyes of a young Jewish refugee. Recommended for Grades 5 and up.

NIGHT

Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is a terrifying record of Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and the despair of a deeply religious Jew confronting the inhumanity of man. Recommended for Grades 11 and 12.

The Night classroom book set has been donated in honour of Leonore Freiman (z”l).

HANA’S SUITCASE

Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine is an award-winning book and accessible Holocaust text for young people. In March 2000, a child’s suitcase arrives from Auschwitz at the tiny Holocaust Education Centre in Tokyo. Painted on the side are a name, Hana Brady, a birthdate and the word “Waisenkind” (orphan). Spurred on by the children at the Centre, the curator embarks on a relentless search from Tokyo to Prague to Toronto to uncover the story of Hana and her fate at the hands of the Nazis. The book set is accompanied by a teachers’ guide produced by the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre and a CBC documentary about the story. Recommended for Grades 5 and up.

Generously sponsored by Susan Quastel, in honour of her parents Aaron Israel Ricardo and Rebecca Nunes Nabarro Ricardo, and by Vancouver Kidsbooks and Second Story Press.

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl has become a classic since its initial publication in 1946. Anne Frank kept a diary for two years while in hiding in Holland during World War Two. It records the thoughts and expressions of a young girl living under extraordinary conditions, whose life ended tragically at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at age 15. This classroom set includes a teacher’s guide, Anne Frank in the World. Recommended for Grades 7 and up.

The Anne Frank book set has been generously sponsored in honour of Sonya Oshman z’l, Holocaust survivor and Bielski partisan.

The Outside the Attic Walls discovery kit complements the study of this book.

THE OLD BROWN SUITCASE

The Old Brown Suitcase is a prize-winning novel for young adults by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz. A classroom set of this highly acclaimed work includes a portfolio of photograph cards, a video testimony from the author (21 minutes) and a literature unit developed by Lorraine Gannon, Odie Kaplan and Ben Pare. Recommended for Grades 6 and 7.


MAUS: A CLASSROOM KIT

MAUS: A Classroom Kit provides high school teachers with a class set of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comic books about the Holocaust. Derived from personal interviews and historical research, MAUS engages the adolescent reader. The kit includes an interactive CD-ROM, The Complete Maus, and a video interview with the author, Serious Comics. There is also a MAUS Teacher’s Guide available. Recommended for Grade 8 and above.

Sponsored by the Krell Family Book Fund & Susan Quastel.