Books are the best thing that humans ever invented. Which is why I love the concept of World Book Day and the way that it encourages school children with their reading. When I was in primary school a portable book shop was wheeled into the main hall and me and my brother and sister could choose one book each to add to the stacks we had at home.
This year, on World Book Day, I have finished a book that is one of the most moving and haunting reads I’ve come across in a while. The Cut Out Girl, by Bart Van Es is non-fiction and charts the experience of a Jewish girl who lived in hiding with various families during the Second World War. I really recommend reading it because it’s such a painfully sharp reminder of the wide-spread damage that the Holocaust caused, beyond the parameters of the concentration camps, spilling into the lives of the survivors and their future generations. As I couldn’t get the book out of my head, I illustrated a few moments from the book that stood out to me.
Lien and Kees scooping up tadpoles.
Lien and Mrs. Heroma leaving by bicycle.
Jo and Lien fleeing in Ijsselmonde.