Prisionero B-3087

This Spanish-language edition of Gratz’s 2013 historical novel Prisoner B-3087 takes its middle-grade audience on a harrowing journey inspired by the life of coauthor Jack Gruener, who survived the Holocaust as a child. After Hitler invades Poland, the novel’s Jewish protagonist Yanek loses his entire family and must make choices as best he can to survive 10 different concentration camps. At his fourth concentration camp, Birkenau, the boy’s wrist is tattooed with the prisoner number B-3087. Yanek just barely makes it out of the Holocaust alive when Allied forces liberate Dachau in 1948. He eventually leaves Poland to reinvent himself in the U.S. This Holocaust survivor story is based on Gratz’s deep research and interviews with Gruener, providing a clear understanding of the atrocities Nazis committed against Jews, among other groups, across Europe. Yanek’s story serves as a first-person coming-of-age account that draws readers in with powerful, sometimes painful, imagery. It is a gripping must-read for historical fiction fans, who won’t soon forget the protagonist’s resolve to survive, at all costs.