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Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story

By Ken Mochizuki
Illustrated by Dom Lee

Paperback: $11.95

Hardcover: out of stock

CD: out of stock

Ebook

As a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania in the 1940s, Chiune Sugihara had a chance to help thousands of Jews escape the Holocaust through Japan, but it was against his government's orders. When his five-year-old son Hiroki asked, "If we don't help them, won't they die?" Sugihara decided to assist the refugees.

Based on Hiroki Sugihara's own words, Passage to Freedom is the first fully illustrated children's book to tell Sugihara's heroic story, highlighting his courageous humanity, and the importance of a child's opinion in his father's decision.

Check out the research-based read aloud and paired text lessons for Passage to Freedom created by the staff at the award-winning, non-profit ReadWorks.org.

Check out the classroom-tested, teacher-created lesson plan, provided by Achieve the Core, a Student Achievement Partners website designed to help educators understand and implement the Common Core State Standards.

Use Passage to Freedom with the field-tested lesson plan, Walk a Quote: A Lesson Based on the Sugihara Story, by Valerie Person, provided by the Museum Teachers Fellows of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

For classroom resources, check out the article “What is Good Citizenship? The Story of Chiune Sugihara” by Dr. J. Allen Bryant of Appalachian State University in Social Studies and the Young Learner, a journal from the National Council for the Social Studies.

Check out the Activity Guide from Live Oak Media, which creates readalongs to help children learn to read and develop language skills.

Discover more reading and craft tips created by the staff and partners of Reading to Kids, a grassroots organization dedicated to inspiring underserved children with a love of reading.

About the Creators

Thumb_thumb Ken Mochizuki - Author

is the award-winning author of numerous books for children from Lee & Low Books. Mr. Mochizuki lives in Maple Valley, Washington, where he teaches, writes children's books, and gives presentations about his work full time.

Thumb_thumb Dom Lee

DOM LEE made his picture-book debut with Baseball Saved Us. He grew up in Seoul, South Korea, and went on to illustrate books in both the United States and Korea. His titles for Lee & Low include Ken Mochizuki's Passage to Freedom and Heroes, as well as the award-winning Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds. Lee's unique illustration style involves applying encaustic beeswax on paper, then scratching out images, and finally coloring the images with oil paint. Lee and his wife live in Hollis, New York.