Looking at the Sky: How Dr. Janusz Korczak Fought for Children’s Rights

Gr 4-6–Seven-year-old Izaak and his sisters are orphans living in Warsaw after the Great War. Struggling to survive and driven by poverty, his sisters make the ­heart-wrenching decision to send Izaak to live in Dom ­Sierot, a Jewish orphanage. There, he meets the ­legendary Dr. Jaznusz Korczak, whose real-life work as a pediatrician and children’s rights activist becomes the heart of this graphic novel. Izaak’s life from childhood to adulthood is used as the narrative tool to describe Korczak’s ­impact, culminating in a somber but hopeful reflection on the doctor’s death during the Holocaust. While the ­storytelling technique for this graphic novel is well ­crafted, the dialogue occasionally interrupts the flow of the story. The tone of the story feels a bit young for older middle grade students, however, this would be an effective resource as an introductory text for upper elementary students interested in historical fiction and the Holocaust.