A review by lemoney
Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto by Tilar J. Mazzeo

3.0

The actual story of Irena Sendler and the others she worked with to save so many children (and adults!) during WWII in Poland is amazing. They risked their lives daily to help them live and allow for many generations to come. For that there aren’t enough stars to give. However, for me, the way the book was written fell short of my expectations. I know I’m in the minority on this with so many 5 star reviews. It reminded me a bit of The Radium Girls book I recently read but not written in such a choppy way as that one. It does have a lot of characters like that story, but here the author does a better job at helping the reader keep track of who is who and why they are mentioned. I believe she wants people to know how big of a community actually worked together to save all of these people, not just Irena alone. I wish this had been written in more of a storytelling way than like a paper written about Irena, if that makes sense. I wanted to feel more emotion while reading the book and when reading a story like this, should have felt. Instead, there were a few parts I skimmed through. I read many WWII Holocaust books I’ve cried through and felt like I really knew the characters, but not so much in this one.