Paul B. Janeczko, Author

Thanks for visiting my website.

The past few weeks have been exciting for my new book of poems, Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto. has received a few awards and some good reviews. Although I have mentioned these on my Facebook page, I decided to summarize the good news on my website.


Notable Book for a Global Society by the Children’s Literature & Reading Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association.
It was a huge thrill to be included on this list that encourages readers to be aware of the global society. You can go to the CL/R SIG website to learn more about this special interest group and the award, as well as see a list of the 2011 winners. The site has not yet updated to include the 2012 winners.


Winner of 2011 Cybils Award for Poetry
I was especially happy to win this award from Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards because the competition on the poetry shortlist was very stiff. (My nonfiction book, The Dark Game: True Spy Stories was on Cybil’s shortlist last year.) Go to their site to see all the winning books. If you click around a bit, you can find all the finalists in each category.


Notable Books for Teens, 2012
Because my book deals with the Holocaust, I was honored that the book was considered notable by Association of Jewish Libraries through their annual
Sydney Taylor Book Awards. If you go to the AJL site, you can learn more about the organization and its award-winning books for young readers.

A review in the Chicago Tribune had nice things to say about my poems, including, “over and over [in Requiem] we experience loss and death. Janeczko's poetry makes us feel what should not be forgotten.”

Finally, I was part of an interview in The Whole Megeillah: The Writer's Resource for Jewish-themed Children's Books, a blog created and maintained by Barbara Krasner. In addition to interviewing me and Ruth Thomson, author of Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust, she spoke with Liz Bicknell, my editor at Candlewick, as well as two of her assistants on the project, Kaylan Adair and Tracy Miracle.

I want to thank all the readers who made the decisions to honor my book. I also want to thank everyone—especially teachers, librarians, and kids--who has read the book.

Spread the word!