ALAN AND NAOMI

It's 1944 in New York City. Alan Silverman doesn't want to give up his stickball game for anyone-especially not for crazy-acting Naomi Kirshenbaum. But when he hears about her horrifying experience during the war in France, Alan changes his mind. Slowly, he struggles to befriend her, and one day-miraculously-she begins to trust him. Alan finds she is not only intelligent, but also fun to be with. But the scars of war are still very much with Naomi.
Alan and Naomi is an American Book Award Finalist for Children's Literature and an honor book for the Jane Addams Children's Book Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Alan and Naomi has received the National Book Awards For Children's Literature in Germany and Austria, and the Dutch Silver Pencil Prize. In 1986 Alan and Naomi was adapted for a theatrical play, Gehime Freunde, by Rudolf Herfurtner. The novel has been translated into eleven languages.

In 1992 Alan and Naomi was made into a feature film, directed by Sterling VanWagenen, starring Lukas Haas and Vanessa Zaoui. The movie, Alan & Naomi, won the Crystal Heart Award at the 1992 Heartland Film Festival. Also, Vanessa Zaoui was nominated for the 1993 Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress Co-starring in a Motion Picture.
Other awards: ALA-Best of the Best for Children, New York Times-Best Books for Children, YALSA-Best of the Best List.