Prisoner B-3087 by Gratz, Alan

From Alan Gratz, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Refugee, comes this wrenching novel about one boy's struggle to survive ten concentration camps during the Holocaust. Based on the inspiring true life story of Jack Gruener.

10 concentration camps.

10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly.

It's something no one could imagine surviving.

But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face.

As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087.

He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined, but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death, only to confront it again seconds later.

Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will -- and, most of all, his sense of who he really is inside?

Based on an astonishing true story.

Author: Alan Gratz,Ruth Gruener,Jack Gruener
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Published: 03/01/2013
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780545459013
Age Range: 10-14

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.9
Point Value: 7
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 156573 / Prisoner B-3087

Award: Parents Choice Awards (Spring) (2008-Up) - Recommended
Award: Cybils - Finalist
Award: Golden Archer Award - Nominee
Award: Iowa Teen Award - Nominee
Award: Keystone to Reading Book Award - Nominee
Award: Golden Sower Award - Winner
Award: Grand Canyon Reader Award - Nominee
Award: Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award - Winner
Award: Georgia Children's Book Award - Finalist
Award: Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award - Nominee
Award: Isinglass Teen Read Award - Winner
Award: Truman Readers Award - Nominee
Award: Virginia Readers Choice Award - Nominee
Award: Volunteer State Book Awards - Nominee
Award: South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/28/2013
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2013
Booklist 04/15/2013 pg. 68
Voice of Youth Advocates 04/01/2013 - Recommended - Hard To Beat
School Library Journal 06/01/2013 pg. 124
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2013 pg. 77 - Recommended, Satisfactory

About the Author

Alan Gratz is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several highly acclaimed books for young readers, including Heroes: A Novel of Pearl Harbor, Two Degrees, Ground Zero, Allies, Grenade, Refugee, Projekt 1065, Prisoner B-3087, Code of Honor, and Captain America: The Ghost Army, an original graphic novel. Alan lives with his family in the Pacific Northwest. Look for him online at alangratz.com.

Ruth Gruener was born Aurelia Gamser in 1930s Poland. Ruth and her parents survived the Holocaust by hiding in the homes of Gentile families. After World War II was over, Ruth and her family moved to the United States, where Ruth tried to start an ordinary teenage life in Brooklyn. Ruth married Jack Gruener, another Holocaust survivor, with whom she lived in Brooklyn until Jack's passing in 2017. They have two children and four grandchildren. Until her death in 2021, Ruth worked as a docent at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in downtown Manhattan and traveled all over the country to speak to schools about her and Jack's experiences in the Holocaust.

Jack Gruener's true life story was the inspiration for Prisoner B-3087. Born and raised in Poland, Jack survived the Holocaust as a young boy and eventually came to America. He married fellow Holocaust survivor Ruth Gruener, and they became authors and advocates. Jack passed away in 2017.