Beginning with Korczak’s imaginative childhood in 19th-century Warsaw, Bogacki’s (Daffodil, Crocodile
) tender but somber book explores the humanitarian’s commitment to children’s rights. He is shown fighting hunger among the indigent, treating children wounded in the Russo-Japanese war and creating an innovative orphanage with a self-governing body of child residents who, despite being relocated to the ghetto during WWII, Korczak refused to abandon. The recurring image of a crowned boy riding a horse, from Korczak’s children’s book King Matt the First
, doesn’t temper the stark reality of Korczak and the orphans’ eventual demise in a concentration camp. Ages 5–up. (Sept.)
