We were honoured to have Lara Hana Brady visit our school today. Lara is the niece of Hana Brady, a holocaust victim who is the subject of the children’s book “Hana’s Suitcase”.

Lara spoke with students from grades 4-12 during her visit. Our school has a special connection with Lara, as two years ago our grade 5/6 class and their teacher Dawn MacDonald-Gillis participated in a Global Read Aloud using the book “Hana’s Suitcase” by Karen Levine. Using twitter the class was able to connect with Lara, Hana’s real life niece as well as Fumiko Ishioka from Japan, who has been involved in the Hana’s Suitcase story since the actual suitcase arrived at a Japanese museum around 2000.

Lara’s presentation explained the Holocaust through her father and aunt’s experiences and gave an extra connection to the novel many of our students have read.

Thank you Lara for taking the time to visit Rankin.