Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

This is an amazing story that would be best read in the older grades.  I would say for grades 9-12.  This true event is fictionalized in a respectful and realistic way.  I felt like I was on the crowded smelly dark train not knowing where we would end up.  The main character is Lina, an young artist with her younger brother and mother.  Taking risks and seeing death on a daily basis in a world of surviving all odds.  A must for any Social Studies Teacher who is trying to bring the world more alive besides facts as to what was going on in Europe in the 1940's.  If you've read Ann Frank's Diary then here is another moving story to experience.