The Secret of the Village Fool

Munio and Milek can’t understand why their mother is so kind to Anton, the gentle, illiterate outcast who everyone else thinks of as the village fool. “People said he thanked the sun and rain for growing his plants.... And they said he put out bowls of sugar water to feed the flies.” But when Nazis arrive and begin rounding up the village’s Jewish boys, it is Anton who saves Munio and Milek by hiding them, their parents, and two other Jews in a secret underground space. Benoit’s (Fraser Bear: A Cub’s Life) illustrations have a sameness that threatens to undercut this true story’s urgency, but this is a text-driven book and Upjohn (Lily and the Paper Man) shines. With a reporter’s eye for action and detail, she brings alive the horror, deprivation, and even boredom that the hidden Jews face while Anton, who never sheds his oddness, bravely denies their presence to both the Germans and the anti-Semitic villagers. The final pages, “What Happened After,” explain how Anton, long thought dead, was reunited with the grateful family in the 1980s and named a Righteous Gentile at Yad Vashem. Ages 7–up. (Oct.)