• Age: 6 to 10
• Grade: 2 to 4
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Milek and his brother, Munio, live in a sleepy village in Poland, where nothing exciting seems to happen. They have a kind and gentle neighbour named Anton, but the people of the village laugh at Anton and call him the village fool because he talks to animals and only eats vegetables. When the war brings Nazi soldiers to town, life changes. The Nazis begin rounding up Jewish boys like Milek and Munio. Anton worries about them and comes up with a plan to hide the whole family in his own home, putting his life at risk without a thought. Based on a true story. The back of the book outlines what happened to Anton and the others after the war, and includes photographs. Anton was honoured both by Poland and by the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, where he was named one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Rebecca Upjohn has worked as an architectural photographer, sheep farmhand, bookstore helper, and more recently a writer and film producer for an independent short film for children called The Go Cart. Rebecca lives in Toronto with her husband, Don and their two sons, Harris and Emmett. The author of the picture books Lily and the Paper Man and Patrick’s Wish, she is interested in characters who reach out to help others. She divides her time between New Hampshire and Ontario.

Rebecca Upjohn's profile page

Renné Benoit is living her childhood dream of being an artist. Trained in graphic design, she is the award-winning illustrator of more than 15 books for children. Her awards include the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award for Children's Literature for Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion; the OLA Silver Birch Express Award for The Secret of the Village Fool; and the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize for both Fraser Bear and Goodbye to Griffith Street. The latter was also nominated for the Amelia Frances Howard Gibbon Award. Big City Bees was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration, and A Year of Borrowed Men was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, among others. Renné lives in St. Thomas, Ontario.

Renné Benoit's profile page

• Winner, Ontario Library Association Silver Birch Express Award
• Short-listed, Ontario Library Association Golden Oak Award
• Commended, Bank Street, Children's Book Committee, Best Children's Books of the Year

Modern children are so far removed from the Holocaust that it is extremely difficult to convey its horrors. Upjohn makes this true story personal, immediate and accessible without resorting to bathos or sentimentality. Benoit’s sepia-tinted, ominously shadowed illustrations convey darkness, fear and uncertainty.

Kirkus Reviews

Rebecca Upjohn tells [Anton's] story in "The Secret of the Village Fool", a picture book about this improbable hero and the Jews he saved during World War II. … At the end of the book we see a wonderful black-and-white photograph of Anton, postwar, surrounded by proud, beaming villagers.

Wall Street Journal - U.S Edition

The book is based on true events, and the epilogue, complete with photos, fills the reader in on what has happened to all those involved. The story is a tearjerker in all the right ways—neither overtly didactic nor overly sentimental. It, nevertheless, both teaches history and illustrates human compassion in unexpected places with its moving, straight­forward narrative. ... This is a great book for elemen­tary school age children who are learning about the Holocaust and is sure to provoke much discussion. Highly recommended for ages 8 and up. Starred Review.

Jewish Book World

With a reporter’s eye for action and detail, she brings alive the horror, deprivation, and even boredom that the hidden Jews face while Anton, who never sheds his oddness, bravely denies their presence to both the Germans and the anti-Semitic villagers.

Publishers Weekly