Books with author Linda Altman

In 1848, gold was discovered in California! This exciting news spread eastward. People from all walks of life with dreams of enormous riches packed up their belongings and left their comfortable homes behind in search of the hidden treasure. Author Linda Jacobs Altman describes the development of this rugged world of the mining towns, which sparked the development of California. Altman also highlights the stories of prospectors, bandits and thrill seekers who make up the legend and the myth of the time.

Hiding behind a double wall in a ghetto in Poland, ten-year-old Aaron Elster heard gunshots and people screaming. In moments, Nazi troops discovered his family and herded them into the street, where Nazis were gunning people down. This young boy's hiding place did not save his family that time, but thousands of Jews went into hiding during the Holocaust. Barns, trapdoors, bunkers, secret attics, forged identity papers, and fake names became tools for survival. Author Linda Jacobs Altman uses primary sources to detail the stories of many Jews who went into hiding to survive the Nazi's planned extermination of Europe's Jews.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's rise to power in the 1930s changed life dramatically for all people living in Germany. Hitler used propaganda, fear, and brutality as his main weapons. Jewish children faced strong antiSemitism in their schools and on the street, and saw their families ripped apart. Non-Jewish children deemed "undesirable" suffered a similar fate. "Aryan" children were forced to enter Hitler Youth groups or endure humiliation. Told through the words of teenagers, author Linda Jacobs Altman uses primary sources to explore the destruction of childhood in Nazi Germany as the Holocaust took shape in Europe.