The Secret of the Village Fool by Rebecca Upjohn

  The Secret of the Village Fool is written by Canadian author Rebecca Upjohn.  It is a nominee for this year's Forest of Reading Silver Birch Express category.  I read The Secret of the Village Fool yesterday to a grade 4/5 class.  They were all quite captivated by the story.  The story is about a 'village fool', Anton, who takes care of all the living things around him.  When war breaks out Anton hides a Jewish family because a life is a life and they are all worth saving.  When the story was over the kids were fascinated by the final few pages that revealed this was in fact a true story.  I was very happy to see that a few kids asked to borrow it and read again on their own.  This is quite possibly a winner in the Silver Birch Express category.