Kristy R. Langstraat-Bolte

This book was called The Rainbow by Carly Schabowski. Yes it was another Holocaust book, but this time, it was almost from a different perspective and a side you don’t normally hear about! It was about a man in Poland, and how when his country got invaded by the Germans, what they did to the Poles, and how they ruined their lives too, and they weren’t Jewish! And yet this man suffered as well under the Nazi occupation. Normally we only think of what happened to the Jewish people, and this told a whole other side to a different kind of suffering! Very interesting and sad!

Apparently I forgot to write up a book I read before the Dachau book. It was called Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder. Part of this book also got turned into a movie, which I have not watched yet. This book was recommended to me by my dad. It was so good! So interesting, I also couldn’t put this one down! I didn’t know so much about this, I learned a new word workamper!! Plus I always wanted to be a campground host but after reading this, NO THANKS! Plus the environment in an Amazon warehouse makes me sick! I think every one should read this book!

This book was called The Watchmaker of Dachau by Carly Schbowski. It was so good! I feel like pretty much all the Holocaust books I read take place in Auschwitz, so it was very interesting to read one from Dachau. Plus it was a little different as these inmates had jobs outside of the camp at a Nazi’s house. I couldn’t put it down.

This book was called Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris. It followed a young Jew who was only 16 when she went to Auschwitz, she survived by being raped by the Germans. But when the Russians liberated the camp, they wanted to punish anyone that they felt aided their enemy (the Germans). And so they told her she was a prostitute who helped the Germans, otherwise she would have been murdered like all the other Jews. So she got sent to ANOTHER concentration/work camp in Siberia! For 10 years! It’s an incredible story, and something I really knew nothing about, I always studied the Holocaust, but never went beyond once the camps were liberated…….

This book was called The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. Wow this book was great, I never even considered that it was a Jewish person who had to tattoo all the numbers onto all of the other Jewish people! It amazes me how some of the Jews were able to get a “cushy” job in Auschwitz and survive the camp because they were actually fed, and kept warm and got to use real “facilities”. I guess I just don’t understand, I mean if the Germans wanted to kill all Jews, how come they chose some to let live? Really makes no sense, but then again the whole Holocaust doesn’t make sense! I still can’t believe it ever happened!

This book was called The Girl Who Escaped Auschwitz also by Ellie Midwood. Another amazing true story! Unfortunately it had a very surprise and sad ending that I wasn’t expecting at all. But it was so interesting I just couldn’t put it down!!!

This book was called The Violinist of Auschwitz by Ellie Midwood. My dad gave me a bunch of new kindle books for my birthday and this was one of them. It was fantastic! Everyone knows I love reading books about the Holocaust especially true stories in the camps. It’s just so amazing to actually read and feel what these people went through, it still hard to believe it really happened!

This book was called The Crocodile Hunter by Steve and Terri Irwin. I just love them, and their story. I love reading about their lives, it’s so exciting and interesting! My dream is to visit Australia Zoo!! But since that’ll never happen, at least I can read their books and watch their shows!!

I think I got this mini book for free at some church, it would either be from Harvest Chapel or my Catholic church but I don’t remember for sure. It’s called The Life Book. This was a quick read for me, I enjoyed it a lot. It just sort of described a lot of the stuff in the Bible but in ways and terms that I could actually understand!!! I always wanted to read the Bible from beginning to end, but it’s written so weird, that I never make it very far… So this little book definitely helped! I wish it had been longer and explained more!

This book was called Conscience & Courage: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust by Eva Fogelman. It was interesting, but a harder read, because it was more informational, then a story. There were lots of stories within the book, but it didn’t flow, because it was a lot of talk and discussions. But like I said still interesting.

I think my dad and I bought this book in Orange City, Iowa at the last Tulip Fest we went to. It’s a big book with a LOT of colorful pictures! It’s called Celebrating Our Dutch Heritage: The Story of the Orange City Tulip Festival by William D. Kalsbeek. It was hard to lug this book around to read so took me longer than most books, but I enjoyed looking at all the pictures of tulip fests past in the last 50 years and reading about how it got started, and how it gets put together etc! I’ve loved getting to participate in the Tulip Fests and having Kathryn do so as well, and if all goes well we should be participating again this May! And we can’t wait! Kathryn loves scrubbing the streets in her costume before the parades and this year she should get to ride a float and we will be going to the carnival eating lots of Dutch food and watching the musical, Cinderella!!!

This book was called A World Erased by Noah Lederman. It was a Holocaust book my dad got me for Christmas on kindle. It was a very interesting story! It was about the author’s grandparents who survived the Holocaust, and how he learned about their stories of survival and how he got them to talk about it when they wanted to forget. So moving!

This book was called Steve & Me by Terri Irwin. I love the Irwin family! I love watching all their shows, and I love how much they love animals! My dream is to go to Australia and visit Australia Zoo! I was so sad when Steve Irwin died…. This book was so good and I couldn’t put it down!!!

I had forgotten to bring Kathryn a book to read in Bensenville last night, so we were looking for one, my dad found this one: Pumpkins From The Sky by Julia Van Nutt. It was a short book, I was reading it to make sure I could read it to Kathryn. It was a very cute story. And the reason it was in our house is because it had a pig in it! My mom’s favorite animal!!!!

I found this book in my bedroom in Bensenville, probably read it in high school. It’s called Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Salem’s Tails: Cat TV by Mark Dubowski. I did love this show growing up, and loved the black kitty Salem, so it’s no wonder I had this book, it was a super fast read, but I enjoyed it, and it brought back memories of my childhood!