Prisioner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

This blog is about Prisoner B-3087  by Alan Gratz, in the genre of Historical-Fiction.  The first chapter of this novel generally takes place in the main character Jake’s (Yanek in his Jewish religion)  home located in Poland. This book speaks about how the main character, Jake, survives through ten concentration camps during the holocaust. One of the most unpleasant concentration camps that he experienced, and surprisingly the only to give tattoos to the prisoners, was the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The story begins in 1939 in Krakow. The Nazis are rolling over Poland when ten-year-old Yanek and his family hear the first bombs explode.  Jews are penned in a small area by the army, and soon their neighborhood is sealed off behind a wall, the image of which is poignantly described by the book’s cover. Despite increasing danger, the Jew’s struggled to preserve their identity and family life. Friends and relatives, at great personal risk, gave Yanek his bar mitzvah in a secret nighttime ceremony. Soon after though, the trucks arrived, taking family after family away to imprisonment and death. Yanek was separated from his parents and began his hellish term as a starved, exhausted slave laborer.  Against all odds, he survived ten different concentration camps before the war is ended. Through it all, Prisoner B-3087, the boy who was Yanek, struggled to stay alive and to somehow retain his humanity and his sense of right and wrong. This novel is based on the true story of Jack Gruener, who survived despite the best efforts of sadists and psychopaths to kill him. Although the subject is grim, the telling is handled in a way which should enlighten and engage (but not overwhelm) middle grade readers (like myself).

The main character, Jake Gruener, in my eyes after reading such a novel, a very emotional and caring person. these are for reasons that some may be unexplainable.  For example, when he says in the first line of the book, “If I had known what the next 6 years of my life were going to be like, I would have eaten more and tried to experience all the good in life.” This explains that he is telling his story after the holocaust happened. Also that he cares more about himself from what he learns from his Uncle that , “You can't care for anyone’ that he, at first, takes seriously, until he befriends one of his bunk-mates, one mistake that he will substantially regret, making part of his character friendly and warm-hearted.

I would most definitely recommend this book, for both genders from ages 10 to about 15, only because the book is about 300 pages rounded off, and is a bit graphic (blood, etc.).  This would also be a great ‘fast-read’ for nonfiction for the marking period.  The most balanced reason that I would recommend this book is that it teaches you the importance of what you have now, and what you may possibly undergo in the future.

So, to wrap this book up, this would be the perfect novel for someone to read in  some historical-fiction that gives you those emotions of sadness and excitement on what will happen on the next page, if you are looking for a non-fiction novel like this, then this is the book for you!

By: Dani Kasper