T4 by Ann Clare LeZotte

1. Title: T4

2. Author: Ann Clare LeZotte

3. Illustrator: N/A

4. Publisher and Publishing Date: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008

5. Genre: Historical Fiction, WWIII Nazis

6. Age range for which the book is appropriate: 6-onward

7. A brief statement of what students you believe may like the book:

I think all types of students would like this book because it is an emotionally powerful book. However, I would also think that many of the lower students that struggle would like the book because they could find success with its simple plot line and direct application to history and a larger literature unit.

8. A summary:

This book is written as a poetic memoir from a young girl named Paula. She is deaf and the Nazis have passed the T4 law that will allow doctors to put all disabled children and adults to death, much like they did with the Jewish people. Paula has to leave her home and stay with a friend of father Joseph who protects her until someone tells the Nazi’s that she is staying there because they think she is a Jew. She hides in the pig trough and then goes to live in a homeless shelter where she meets Poor Kurt who we soon find out is a Gypsy in hiding and his real name is Walthar. They go out to the city on an ill-advised trip and end up staying with poor Jews. They come back and finally the law is repealed and they go to her home. They fall in love.

9. Personal Response:

I think this book would be a great book for younger children and high school students studying WWII. I personally liked the book because it was on one of my favorite topics as well as eloquently written. The book brought out many emotions in me as I remembered and lived through the author the events of WWII. This book reminds me of Night by Elie Wesiel and other WWII works.

10. Teaching ideas:

I would teach this book with Night by Elie Wesiel and other WWII works, within a unit in English II. I think this book would be perfect for an inclusion class as well as for an overall understanding of the atrocities of the time period.

I would use this book as a launching board for an Ipoem research project that is centered around research through many genres of writing. I would also have the students create a memoiric poem of their lives like in the novel.