Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story

Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story follows the struggles of a young girl, Marion Blumenthal, and her family during their stay at Bergen-Belsen and beyond.  The title Four Perfect Pebbles is derived from Marion's belief and hope that if she were to found four identical pebbles her family would stay together and be safe from Nazi harm.

Before even picking up the story to read I was wondering in my head if this book would be feasible to read with elementary students.  From my own education experiences I do not remember learning about the Holocaust until seventh or eighth grade.  Of course one cannot judge before they read the book, but I still was unsure about whether fifth of sixth graders could handle the extent of the holocaust.  If one was to look solely at educational standards, the Holocaust would fall into the realm of sixth grade social studies.  I don't doubt that sixth graders would be mature enough to handle the sensitivity of the holocaust, but going back to Keene and her dilemma with student understanding, I was stuck wondering if sixth graders would actually be able to understand the complexities of the book and the holocaust. 

However, my thoughts quickly changed after reading the first chapter of Four Perfect Pebbles and chapter two in Keene's book.  After reading these two seperate entities I discovered that Four Perfect Pebbles would absolutely be a great book to read with sixth graders.  Like Keene mentioned, how can we ever expect our students to think at high levels if we do not push their intellects and challenge them to discover new things. Obviously before reading Four Perfect Pebbles in a classroom setting it would be wise to get parental permission, but I think by not reading this story you would be doing your students a disservice.  It is not just a story of the Holocaust, for it also teaching empathy and understanding.  The Holocaust is a terrible event in our history and whether we like it or not the truth is that it happened.  Rather than shelter our kids from the truth we should help walk them through it to develop a deeper understanding of the events that took place.

Although I have only ready the first chapter I believe that this book would be a great edition to any sixth grade curriculum.