A moving biography of the woman who created The Tower of Faces, a powerful exhibit at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Sydney Taylor Book Award (Gold Medal) A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book ★ “…There are many picture books about the Holocaust, but this one stands out with Gal’s beautiful watercolor pictures and the true account of one woman’s goal that her community never be forgotten. A beautiful tribute….Highly recommended.” ― School Library Journal , starred review ★ “A stunning tale . . . . bursting with detail and life. . . . A magnificent and moving tribute to a loving community and an extraordinary woman.” ― Booklist , starred review ★ “A powerful tribute….Moving.” ― Publisher’s Weekly , starred review ★ “An affirming tribute to a Jewish past that was lost in the Holocaust as well as to one survivor’s work.” ― The Horn Book, starred review “ …A loving testament to light and hope and the vision of a remarkable woman.” ― Kirkus Reviews “…the book’s mes­sage is con­sis­tent­ly opti­mistic... Stiefel paints a truth­ful por­trait appro­pri­ate for those just begin­ning to learn about the Holocaust….Gal’s artwork…is dramatic and accessible…a book that ensures [Eliach and her town] will not be forgotten.” ― Jewish Book Council There once was a girl named Yaffa. She loved her family, her home, and her beautiful Polish town that brimmed with light and laughter. She also loved helping her Grandma Alte in her photography studio. There, shopkeepers, brides, babies, and bar mitzvah boys posed while Grandma Alte captured their most joyous moments on film. And before the Jewish New Year, they sent their precious photographs to relatives overseas with wishes for good health and happiness. But one dark day, Nazi soldiers invaded the town. Nearly 3,500 Jewish souls ― including family, friends, and neighbors of Yaffa ― were erased. This is the stunning true story of how Yaffa made it her life’s mission to recover thousands of her town’s photographs from around the world. Using these photos, she built her amazing TOWER OF FACES, a permanent exhibit in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, to restore the soaring spirit of Eishyshok. Gr 3–5—In the small town of Eishyshok, previously Poland, now Lithuania, lived a young Jewish girl named Yaffa. Her family roots went back in the town for 900 years. Her grandmother ran a studio where people from the village came to get their photographs taken for New Year's greetings and memories. But then the war came, and the Nazi soldiers rounded up the Jews in Eishyshok and killed all but Yaffa and her family who escaped and hid. Thirty-five years later, President Jimmy Carter reached out to Yaffa and asked her to help with a memorial being built for the victims of the Holocaust. Yaffa remembered the photographs her grandmother had taken, and the ones she had hidden in her socks as she fled the village. She decided to build the memorial not on bricks, but on photographs that were saved from Eishyshok. Traveling around the world, she found 6,000 photographs to display on what would later be called the Tower of Life. Not a memorial of the dead, but of the life that came from her beloved hometown. There are many picture books about the Holocaust, but this one stands out with Gal's beautiful watercolor pictures and the true account of one woman's goal that her community never be forgotten. VERDICT A beautiful tribute to one small town and the six million Jews across Europe who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Highly recommended.—Heidi Dechief Sydney Taylor Book Award (Gold Medal) A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book Russell Freedman Award for Nonfiction for a Better World A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard A School Library Journal Best Book of 2022 A Booklist Editors’ Choice A Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best Books of 2022: Best Informational Books for Younger Readers A 2022 New York Public Library’s Best New Books for Kids CA Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Award – Honor/Silver Medal ★ “…(When) President Jimmy Carter reached out to Yaffa (Eliach) and asked her to help with a memorial being built for the victims of the Holocaust… she decided to build (it) not on bricks, but on photographs that were saved from Eishyshok. Traveling around the world, she found 6,000 photographs to display on what would later be called the Tower of Life. Not a memorial of the dead, but of the life that came from her beloved hometown. There are many picture books about the Holocaust, but this one stands out with Gal’s beautiful watercolor pictures and the true account of one woman’s goal that her community never be forgotten. A beautiful tribute…Highly recommended.” ― School Library Journal , starred review ★ “It’s a stunning tale, spanning decades and continents, and a tender introduction to a terrible time in human history. The watercolor illustrations, bursting with detail and life, utilize warm, bright colors in times of peace and deep reds and blacks in wartime. The drawings