{"id":45913,"date":"2025-12-22T23:22:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T04:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45913"},"modified":"2025-12-22T23:22:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T04:22:25","slug":"review-of-the-world-entire-by-elizabeth-brown-illustrated-by-melissa-castrillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=45913","title":{"rendered":"Review of The World Entire, by Elizabeth Brown, illustrated by Melissa Castrill\u00f3n"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world_entire_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world_entire_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"198\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-46036\" \/><\/a><em>The World Entire<\/p>\n<p>A True Story of an Extraordinary World War II Rescue<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Elizabeth Brown<br \/>\nillustrated by Melissa Castrill\u00f3n<\/p>\n<p>Chronicle Books, 2025.  64 pages.<br \/>\nReview written November 17, 2025, from a library book.<br \/>\nStarred Review<\/p>\n<p>The title of this book is taken from a quotation in the Talmud &#8211; &#8220;He who saves a single life, saves the world entire.&#8221;  This book is a picture book biography of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who saved the lives of approximately 10,000 refugees during World War II.<\/p>\n<p>Aristides was a Portuguese diplomat who worked at a consulate in France.  When refugees poured into Bordeaux fleeing the Nazis, he was ordered not to give any visas to enter Portugal.  After talking with a rabbi and three days of soul-searching, Aristides instead began an assembly line granting visas to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>After the Nazis came to Bordeaux, he went to Bayonne to help make more visas.  He even helped refugees find a place to cross the border where those visas would be accepted.<\/p>\n<p>And when he got back home to Portugal, he was arrested for defying orders.<\/p>\n<p>This whole story is dramatized beautifully, with a long author&#8217;s note and timeline at the back, giving further details.  This book celebrates a man who defied his own government to save people&#8217;s lives.  He faced many consequences of his actions, but said, &#8220;I could not have acted otherwise, and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/elizabethbrownbooks.com\/\">elizabethbrownbooks.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.melissacastrillon.co.uk\/\">melissacastrillon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1452170983\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/world_entire.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/world_entire.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?page_id=23\">Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n<p>Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The World Entire A True Story of an Extraordinary World War II Rescue by Elizabeth Brown illustrated by Melissa Castrill\u00f3n Chronicle Books, 2025. 64 pages. Review written November 17, 2025, from a library book. Starred Review The title of this book is taken from a quotation in the Talmud &#8211; &#8220;He who saves a single [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,11,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45913"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46037,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45913\/revisions\/46037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}