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SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST: Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. And one of its goals is education. A new book by Peter Sis introduces the topic to children ages 6 to 9. The book Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero Of The Holocaust And The Children He Rescued tells the true story of the Englishman Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 children from the Nazis. NPR s Elizabeth Blair has the story.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: On the cover of Nicky & Vera, a little girl stands alone on the platform of an enormous train station holding a little suitcase and a kitty cat stuffed animal. Vera loves cats. Inside the silhouette of the girl, Peter Sis drew colorful details of what she left behind - her mom and dad, her house, a galloping horse. At the beginning of the story, Vera is living a happy life in Czechoslovakia.
Nicky & Vera by Petr Sís is based on the stories of Sir Nicholas Winton and Vera Gissing, one of the children the Briton managed to save from Prague in 1939.
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Petr Sís: Discovering our town
Petr Sís, photo: Ian Willoughby
Highly acclaimed children’s author and illustrator Petr Sís is just about to publish a new book, Nicky & Vera, inspired by the story of Sir Nicholas Winton and the children he saved. Sís has been living in Irvington on the River Hudson in New York State for the last two decades.