Benno and the Night of Broken Glass

This iconographic-animated adaptation of the 2010 picture book by author Meg Wiviott and illustrator Josée Bisaillon looks at heightening tensions between Germans and Jews in pre-WWII Berlin from the point of view of a neighborhood pet. Friendly cat Benno trolls the area, visiting businesses and families for milk and snacks—swinging by the Adlers' place during their Saturday night rituals and stopping in at the Schmidts for their Sunday lunch after church. Benno also follows young girls Inga and Sophie to and from school. But the feline's comfortable life begins to change when men in brown shirts start burning papers (a local professor murmuring about saving books is later dragged away) and the formerly peaceful quarter is filled with the violent noise and terrible smoke of the Kristallnacht attacks of 1938. Combining ink and collage techniques, this short—narrated by Susie Berneis—offers an effective introduction for younger viewers to one of the signature dark events leading up to the Holocaust. Also featuring a read-along option, this is recommended. Aud: E, P. (J. Williams-Wood)