P&P Live! Peter Sís-Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued—with Simon Boughton
So much of life is built around chance encounters and circumstance. It was an unplanned visit to the National Museum in Prague in 2009 that led author and illustrator Peter Sís to learn about a reluctant hero from WW II who saved 669 Czech children (mostly Jewish) from almost certain death in 1939. Nicholas Winton’s story went unacknowledged for 50 years until he was honored on a BBC show by the grown children he saved. Through Sís’s magnificently detailed and emotional craft, we see the unfolding story of Vera Gissing, one of the children Winton saved. The book’s rich backmatter presents additional information about the humble yet clever man who faced a horrible situation and set about changing it any way he could.
Peter Sís is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, author and filmmaker. Peter is a seven-time winner of The New York Times Book Reviews Best Illustrated Book of the Year, a three-time Caldecott Honor winner, a two-time Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honoree, and has won the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal twice. In addition, he is the first children’s book illustrator to win the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. For his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator, he received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2012. His books include Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei, Tibet: Through the Red Box, and The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. He lives with his family in New York State.
Simon Boughton joined W.W. Norton & Company in 2018 to develop a new children’s and young adult publishing program, Norton Young Readers. While working as publishing director of Alfred A. Knopf and Crown books for Young Readers, he published Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. In 2000, he started Roaring Brook Press, where his list included the Caldecott Medal winners My Friend Rabbit and The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, as well as books by Lane Smith, Marcus Sedgwick, Steve Sheinkin, and others.
A family event with children ages 5+
Each copy of Nicky & Vera purchased will be signed, while supplies last.
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