What Rosa Brought

Ages 4 to 8, Grades P to 3

Author Jacob Sager Weinstein and illustrator Eliza Wheeler deliver a powerful and poignant picture book about a young Jewish girl fleeing Nazi occupation with her parents. Drawing on the childhood experiences of the author’s mother, this story of family, immigration, and identity shows that love can cross oceans and last lifespans.

Vienna, Austria, is the only home Rosa knows. While her parents work at their store, she plays with her grandmother, reads her favorite books, and climbs trees. But when the Nazis arrive in 1938, everything changes.Rosa’s family is Jewish, and the Nazis’ new laws make it dangerous for Jews to live in Vienna. Rosa’s parents can no longer run their store. Soon, some Jews decide to leave the country, and Rosa wants to go, too. But where would they go? And what would Rosa be able to bring with her?

About the Author

Jacob Sager Weinstein is the author of the Hyacinth series; How to Remember Everything; Lyric McKerrigan, Secret Library; and Princess Unlimited. Jacob’s writing has appeared in the New Yorker, McSweeney’s, the North American Review, and Self. He is a former contributor to the Onion, and he was also a staff writer on HBO’s multiple-Emmy-winning Dennis Miller Live, for which he won a Writers Guild of America Award.  Eliza Wheeler is the author-illustrator of Home in the Woods and the New York Times bestselling picture book Miss Maple’s Seeds. She was a recipient of the Sendak Fellowship award and has illustrated numerous books for children, including Newbery Honor Book Doll Bones, When I’m with You, and Wherever You Go and John Ronald’s Dragons: The Story of J.R.R. Tolkein. She grew up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and now lives with her husband in Minneapolis, MN.