Author/illustrator Isaac Millman and his family were living in France, where they’d emigrated from Poland, in the late 1930s. They were Jewish, and the German invasion of France in 1940 marked the start of frightening and traumatic times for young Isaac. After his father is arrested, his mother makes plans to flee the country. She and Isaac almost make it to the border before they are arrested. After a week or more in jail, Isaac sees his mother give a guard her money and jewelry and whisper something to him. “Isaac . . . go with this nice man,” she tells him later. It was the last time he saw her. His mother had arranged for his escape back to Paris, where she’d made prior arrangements with a neighbor to hide him if the need arose. But when Isaac and his escort arrive back in Paris, the fearful neighbor turns Isaac away. The escort abandons him, and the little boy is alone. Isaac survives the war thanks to several kind, courageous strangers who become like family. He dedicates this book in part to one of them, Héna Sztulman, who found him on that Paris street and took him in. Héna then found a place in the country where Isaac was sheltered and loved by a widowed countrywoman for the duration of the war. Millman’s gripping, emotional story is illustrated with both black-and-white family photographs and his own paintings, scrapbook-like pages that visually document many of his experiences. (Ages 8–12)