Looking at the Sky: How Dr. Janusz Korczak Fought for Children's Rights

Written by Amanda West Lewis

Illustrated by Abigail Rajunov

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1024-9

80 pp.

Ages 8–12

June 2026 

 

From Looking at the Sky: How Dr. Janucz Korczak Fought for Children's Rights, written by Amanda West Lewis, illustrated by Abigail Rajunov

In the early 1920s, Izaak Dembinski is living with his Mama, and sisters Chana, Zofia and Sara in Warsaw, Poland. Izaak's father was a soldier who'd died before Izaak was born. The family's life is one of austerity but there are moments of togetherness that brings respite from everything. But when Mama dies from tuberculosis, seven-year-old Izaak goes to Dom Sierot (which means Home for Orphans), while his sisters go to work at a laundry and a store. 

From Looking at the Sky: How Dr. Janucz Korczak Fought for Children's Rights, written by Amanda West Lewis, illustrated by Abigail Rajunov

Unlike the orphanages of many fictionalized stories, Dom Sierot gives Izaak opportunities. Under the directorship of Dr. Korczak, Izaak is able to receive health care, schooling, time for play, and safety. He gets food with meat which he hadn't had for ages and he is allotted a bed and a small dresser. He learns the value of doing chores and about justice at the weekly children's court. Compared to his sisters, whom Izaak gets to visit on weekends, and who work so hard for so little, Izaak is experiencing a childhood of stability, of care, and of learning.

 

When he is released from Dom Sierot at age fourteen and is anxious about what he will do next, Dr. Korczak advises him that... 

We can give you only one thing: hope. Hope of a better life, a life of truth and justice. (pg. 47)

Regardless of how difficult their lives have been, Izaak's sisters have saved carefully so that he might travel to Canada to stay with their mother's sister and to continue his schooling and get a good job. With the life lessons he has learned from Pan Doctor and matron Pani Stefa, Izaak has learned how to work hard and how to deal with people, and succeed. But when Hitler invades Poland in 1939, Izaak finds it near impossible to keep connected them and his sisters.

From Looking at the Sky: How Dr. Janucz Korczak Fought for Children's Rights, written by Amanda West Lewis, illustrated by Abigail Rajunov

Looking at the Sky is based on the remembrances of a former Dom Sierot child whom Amanda West Lewis befriended. While Izaak and the other children in the story are fictional, their experiences would have been very real. And Dr. Janusz Korczak, a man who founded several orphanages in Warsaw, one Catholic and one Jewish, published stories for children, had a national radio program, and gave hope to many through his good  work, was quite authentic. Looking at the Sky tells his story through that of a child who might have been at Dom Sierot and who may have been blessed with the caring and life lessons extended to him there. By telling Dr. Korczak's story from the perspective of one who benefited from his kindness and compassion, Amanda West Lewis makes Looking at the Sky less of a biography and more of a tribute to an extraordinary man.

From Looking at the Sky: How Dr. Janucz Korczak Fought for Children's Rights, written by Amanda West Lewis, illustrated by Abigail Rajunov

Abigail Rajunov is an American illustrator who embeds the mood of Izaak and Dr. Korczak's story through her use of colour and line. Her palette is very limited and subdued. It is primarily sepia tones for a hard but routine life. Blacks and greys are reserved for the worst of situations—like travel to Treblinka—while bits of blue bring the infrequent joys of cheerful skies, new clothes, or a fresh bed. Abigail Rajunov makes us feel Izaak's story, not just show us it.

 

Perhaps Looking at the Sky gives us but a glimpse into the remarkable legacy of Dr. Korczak—his reputation as a pediatrician, author, educator, and children's rights advocate could fill books—but it is a personal and tender look at how the man influenced and inspired others with his warmheartedness and his insight. And, with Amanda West Lewis's appended note and bibliography, young readers can look beyond to learn more about this great man.

The Secret of the Village Fool

by Rebecca Upjohn

Illustrated by Renné Benoit

Second Story Press

978-1-926920-75-7

32 pp.

Ages 7-10

2012

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

E. F. Schumacher

We are all fools at one point or another so the antiquated idea of a village fool is and should be reprehensible.  But, as E. F. Schumacher recognizes in the above quotation, courage and genius can transform, as it does in Rebecca Upjohn's The Secret of the Village Fool.  In the capable pen of award-winning youngCanLit author Rebecca Upjohn (The Last Loon, Orca, 2010; Lily and the Paper Man, Second Story Press, 2007), the true events upon which this picture book is based demonstrate the ignorance of prejudice and the courage of those who can see beyond it.

A sensitive man who talks to animals and plants and never eats meat, Anton is ridiculed for his weird ideas. But he recognizes kindness in others, like Milek and Munio's mother who sends food and clothes over to Anton who is poor.  He also sees the ugliness of those who warn him against fraternizing with Jews.  In World War II Poland, the fear of Hitler has many shunning their Jewish neighbours.  But not Anton.  He considers how to help them should the Nazis arrive in their village.

When the Nazis do arrive and they begin arresting Jews, targeting the boys first, Anton arrives at Milek and Munio's house with disguises for the boys. Later when whole families are being taken away, Anton keeps six of them hidden in his attic until an underground hiding place is constructed for them leading by tunnel from Anton's root cellar and by a shaft from Anton's bedroom.  Along with a young girl Ziphora and a family friend, Eva, the family hides away for months, enduring lice, dampness, hunger and cramped quarters.  Mama always reminds them of the risks Anton was taking daily to ensure their safety.  But, as Anton had always known, "Life is precious--every life."

With photographs, Rebecca Upjohn extends the story of Anton Suchinski and the Zeiger family to 1992 with Anton's official recognition as "Righteous among Nations" at the Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem.  This recognition may have finally transformed Anton from village fool to village hero but his heart and valour have always identified him as a champion, choosing to live his life true to his heart, even when ridiculed.  The Secret of the Village Fool shows Anton to be not a fool, but an angel, especially to those whose lives he saved and to their children, grandchildren and others they were able to touch.  And to those of us fortunate enough to read this story. 

Thank you, Rebecca Upjohn, for giving life to this story and presenting it exquisitely, wisely tempering the horrors of a wartime genocide and human ignorance with Anton's compassion and wisdom and the learning that happens, so necessary for ignorance to be overcome.