By Peter Lantos (author)
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The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die by Peter Lantos is a remarkable, vital, and heartbreaking true story of a young Hungarian Jewish boy's experience during the Holocaust. It's not an easy read, but it is an important one. It is also one that manages to find hope even in the darkest places. ~ Katya Balen's Book of the Month, Guest Editor January 2023
A story of survival, of love between mother and son and of enduring hope in the face of unspeakable hardship. An important read.
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The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die describes an extraordinary journey, made by Peter, a boy of five, through war-torn Europe in 1944 and 1945. Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together.
Along the way, unforgettable images of adventure flash one after another: sleeping in a tent and then under the sky, discovering a disused brick factory, catching butterflies in the meadows - and as Peter realises that this adventure is really a nightmare - watching bombs falling from the blue sky outside Vienna, learning maths from his mother in Belsen.
All this is drawn against a background of terror, starvation, infection and, inevitably, death, before Peter and his mother can return home.
Professor Peter Lantos is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and in his previous life was an internationally renowned clinical neuroscientist. His memoir, Parallel Lines (Arcadia Books, 2006) was translated into Hungarian, German and Italian. Closed Horizon (Arcadia, 2012) was his first novel.
Peter was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2020 for 'services to Holocaust education and awareness'. He is one of the last of the generation of survivors and this - his first book for children - will serve as a testimony to his experience. Peter lives in London.
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The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die and determined it is suitable for children aged 11-14 years old
The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die features in the following genres: Featured Books for 11+ readers, Recommendations, Gritty Reads, Historical Fiction, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Featured Books for 13+ readers
Paperback. £7.19, down from the £7.99 cover price. In Stock.
The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die was written by Peter Lantos and published by Scholastic
The Boy Who Didn't Want to Die has 215 pages
£7.19, reduced from £7.99. In Stock.
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