

The Woman Who Rescued a Generation of Children and Founded the World's Largest Children's Library
Review posted July 21, 2025.
Handprint Books (Chronicle), 2025. 104 pages.
Review written June 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
This book has the large shape of an ordinary picture book biography, but there are more words on each page and many more pages, so this is suitable for older children than the usual picture book biography crowd, kids who can read more in-depth information. The book does have all the beauty and added interest of illustrations on every page.
I hadn't heard of Jella Lepman before reading this book - but I had heard of the International Youth Library when I lived in Germany, and had long meant to go visit. I'm now all the more disappointed that I never did manage it - will have to visit Germany again to do so!
I've also heard of IBBY, the International Board of Books for Young People, which always has events at ALA Annual Conference - and was very happy to read a book about one of the founders.
So I knew about some of the things Jella Lepman established, but hearing her story helped me learn her wonderful motivation - helping children after war.
Jella was a German Jew who had fled Germany after Hitler rose to power. But she came back after the war, working for the U.S. Army. Her job was to be an "adviser on the cultural and educational needs of women and children" in the part of Germany under American occupation. She agonized about whether to accept the assignment.
Even if Jella could not help the adults, couldn't she do something for suffering children? "I found it easy to believe that the children all to soon would fall into the wrong hands if no help came from the world outside," she wrote. "Were not Germany's children just as innocent as children all over the world, helpless victims of monstrous events?"
She had made up her mind. The fate of these children was too important. She would accept the military assignment.
After she arrived in Germany, I love the part where she decided to promote world peace through children's books. She solicited books from countries across the world. It started with an International Exhibition of Children's Books. The books were sent to the children of Germany as messengers of peace.
At first the show traveled around the country, but eventually Jella worked to give it a permanent home in the International Youth Library.
And that was only the beginning of her efforts toward peace through children's books. To this librarian reading this, her story was uplifting and gratifying and beautiful.