The Dust King’s Window

Historical
Picture Book

In an attic in the Lublin ghetto is the kingdom of Henio, a Jewish boy.

He has a secret, and he shares it with his best friend, who isn’t Jewish. A marvel is hidden behind the dusty glass of one of the attic windows: a different world, perhaps a place of peace, different from the horror of war that can be seen from the other window. For those who are Jews, the time comes to flee. So, on the night of the 16th of March, Henio runs to his friend to convince him to run away together, but his friend is scared and stays. On the morning of the roundup, Henio is missing. His friend looks for him everywhere, even in the attic, where a big surprise awaits him: on the glass of the window, children’s fingerprints and a name that is a goodbye.

Pierdomenico Baccalario and Alice Barberini give us a moving story that removes the dust from the history of the Lublin ghetto and imagines a different epilogue, for Henio Zytomirski too.

Publisher: Orecchio Acerbo
Target: 8-10
Year: 2023
Author
Pierdomenico Baccalario

Pierdomenico Baccalario has been writing children’s novels since 1997, when he won the Il Battello a Vapore literary prize with La strada del Guerriero (The Way of the Warrior) using his neighbour’s name. Since then, his bestsellers have been written under as many pseudonyms (the best known being Ulysses Moore and Irene Adler), translated into more than thirty languages and published with major Italian and foreign publishers. He has collaborated with Lucca Comics & Games for more than twenty years, has written for Repubblica, and is a columnist for the newspaper Corriere della Sera’s La Lettura literary supplement. In 2014, he founded the Book on a Tree creative agency in London.

 

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