The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II

"An important work that is immensely personal, powerful, and heart-wrenching." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"They were there at the beginning of the War, but they were gone by the end. I suppose they died in the camps." That's all young Michael Rosen, born in England just after the Second World War, was told about his family members who had been living in Poland or France when the war began. This wasn't enough. So, as an adult, he searched for them. In a unique mix of memoir, history, and poetry, scholar and children's literature luminary Michael Rosen explores his family history, digging up more details than he ever thought he would and sharing them so that now, a lifetime after the Nazis tried to make the world forget the Rosen family and the rest of Europe's Jews, his readers can do something essential: remember. With an extensive list of titles for further reading, maps of France and Poland, a family tree, and an introduction by lauded author and anthologist Marc Aronson, this immensely readable narrative offers a vital tool for talking to children about the Holocaust against the background of the ongoing refugee crisis.

Michael Rosen is one of the most popular contemporary poets and authors of books for children. He received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for services to children's literature in 1997 and served as Children's Laureate in the UK between 2007 and 2009. His books include the worldwide bestseller We're Going on a Bear Hunt and the award-winning Michael Rosen's Sad Book as well as What's So Special About Shakespeare?, What's So Special About Dickens?, and What Is Poetry? He lives in London.