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Leyson, Leon
THE BOY ON THE WOODEN BOX
New York : Atheneum, 2013
IL 5-8, RL 6.8
ISBN 1442497815


(3 booktalks)
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews
 Booktalk #1

Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance, and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow. Ultimately, it was the generosity and cunning of one man, a man named Oskar Schindler, who saved Leon Leyson’s life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings, by adding their names to his list of workers in his factory – a list that became world renowned: Schindler’s List.
 
This, the only memoir published by a former Schindler’s List child, perfectly captures the innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable. Most notable is the lack of rancor, the lack of venom, and the abundance of dignity in Mr. Leyson’s telling. The Boy on the Wooden Box is a legacy of hope, a memoir unlike anything you’ve ever read.    (Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher award, 2015)


Booktalk #2

As a young Jewish boy growing up in Poland in the 1930s, Leib Lejzon was an ordinary boy. He was not so very different from you. He was energetic, mischievous, fun-loving, and close to his family and friends.  But all of that changed when the Nazi’s invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Little by little, Leib’s family was shut out from the rest of Polish society forced to live in horrible conditions. One night, members of the police Getsapo showed up at Leib’s family’s front door, smashing and breaking everything his family owned, beating and even imprisoning his father. Leib’s fun-loving childhood began to turn into a life of fear, until one day when Leib’s father had a chance encounter with a German factory owner and Leib suddenly became “the boy on the wooden box”.  Leib’s story is about hope, kindness, life, and death and it is not made up...  (Booktalk by Christina Willson, E.L. Wright Middle School, South Carolina Junior Book Award)

Booktalk #3

Holocaust survivor Leon Leyson was only ten-years-old when World War II reached his home in Poland. In this memoir he straightforwardly recounts his memories of his life before, during, and after the war. He attributes his survival to the brave efforts of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi who recognized the value of his life and the lives of other Jews working in his factory. (Booktalk by Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Committee, 2016)

SUBJECTS:     Leyson, Leon, 1929-2013.
                        Jews -- Biography.
                        Jewish children in the Holocaust -- Biography.
                        Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
                        Schindler, Oskar, 1908-1974.
                        World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
                        Concentration camp inmates.
                        Plaszow (Concentration camp)
                        Narewka (Poland) -- Biography.

 
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