The Tattered Prayer Book by Ellen Bari

The Tattered Prayer Book is a gentle introduction to the Holocaust for children ages 6-10. Ruthie discovers a secret about her father, while looking through a box of mementos from the ‘old country.’ As her father tells his surprising story, Ruthie learns a piece of her father’s story, a slice of Jewish history and the circumstances under which the family fled Nazi Germany. A burnt prayer book taken in secret from a destroyed synagogue after Kristallnacht offers solace to her father as a young boy, at the most difficult time in his life. Once safely settled in America, he tries to bury the prayer book along with his painful past. Many years later, sharing the story with Ruthie, allows father to heal and daughter to grow