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Book Cover for: Prisoner B-3087, Alan Gratz

Prisoner B-3087

Alan Gratz

Nominee:South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award -Junior Book (2016)
Nominee:Volunteer State Book Awards -Middle School (2016)

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.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Scholastic Press
  • Publish Date: Mar 1st, 2013
  • Pages: 272
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.70in - 1.00in - 0.80lb
  • EAN: 9780545459013
  • Recommended age: 10-14
  • Categories: Historical - Holocaust

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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.

More books by Alan Gratz

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Book Cover for: Heroes: A Novel of Pearl Harbor, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Ground Zero, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Allies, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Two Degrees, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Ban This Book, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Grenade, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Code of Honor, Alan Gratz
Book Cover for: Captain America: The Ghost Army (Original Graphic Novel), Alan Gratz
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Book Cover for: Capitán América: El Ejército Fantasma (Captain America: The Ghost Army), Alan Gratz
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Praise for this book

Praise for Prisoner B-3087: A Junior Library Guild SelectionGolden Sower Award, 2014-2015 Winner NebraskaIsinglass Teen Read Award, 2014-2015 Winner New HampshirePennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award, 2014-2015 Winner PennsylvaniaJunior Book Award, 2015-2016 Winner South CarolinaGrand Canyon Reader Award, 2015-2016 Winner ArizonaTruman Readers Award, 2015-2016 Winner MissouriReaders Choice Awards, Winner 2015-2016 Virginia Volunteer State Book Award Winner, 2015-2016 Tennessee"A powerful story, well told." -- School Library Journal"A bone-chilling tale not to be ignored." -- Kirkus Reviews"[A] remarkable survival story." -- Booklist"Gratz ably conveys . . . fatalism, yearning, and determination in the face of the unimaginable." -- Publishers Weekly"Heartbreaking, gripping, raw, and emotional . . . storytelling at its finest." -- VOYA