A mother and daughter create a relief effort, which spanned a year and a half and aided numerous German families after World War II. The author tells the true story of her grandmother and mother's endeavor to find shoes, clothing, and food for hundreds of Germans devastated by the war. When Judge's grandmother receives a letter from German friends describing their poverty, she sends them a Christmas package and promptly receives back more requests for help. These yearnings for help often included tracings of feet, so that shoes might be found to match. The daughter's narration offers a child's perspective on the tragedies and hope, making the story relatable to a younger audience. Photographs of some of the actual tracings and of several families who were helped are included in end of the book. I thought this book was super powerful and showed a different perspective of WWII. This would be a great lesson to segue into giving back to the poor in our local community. ( )

This is a tender story of a German-American family who sent needed supplies to strangers in Germany, most needed were shoes. This story would give insight to children of how the innocents strive to survive in the aftermath of war. I would use this book in an upper elementary class to teach empathy for others.

In this book, Lita Judge writes a story based upon letters she found in her grandmother's attic. In the attic she found boxes of letters with outlines of feet inside. Her mother was then able to remember that directly after WWII, she and her family, being of German descent, put together care packages of shoes, soap, clothing, and dry goods to send over to families in Germany whose houses had been damaged and bombed. The story tells of how a mother and daughter send over 1000 care packages to needy families. They rallied the neighborhood together in order to get this done. All of this was done for complete strangers. This book is an excellent way to show children how, even after a terrible conflict, charity cannot be forgotten. One Thousand Tracings can be used to show young children that sharing and charity can begin with them. ( )

The genre of this book is historical fiction. We follow the story of a young girl whose mother begins to write letters to families in Germany after WWII ends. She finds that the children in Germany are very much less fortunate than her, and she tries very hard to send them things that they might need. Families in Germany sent shoe tracings for sizing for used shoes, and soon the girl's home was filled with a thousand tracings. Therefore, their friends and neighbors all banded together to help those in need, and sent many, many packages. This book would be appropriate for a 3rd grade classroom, in which the topic of study is wartime or letter-writing. There are many good examples of how to write simple letters in this book. ( )

Summary-A family gets a letter from a German Family after World War II that tells how bad things are in Germany and lists things that are needed. The family gathers things they need and send it in a box to Germany. Soon more letters come. Many of the letters are requests for shoes. The letters contain foot tracing for sizing purposes.

Personal Response- A very sweet story of how a family offers grace and mercy to what was our enemy during WW2.

Extensions- Students could research ways we can help war torn countries today. ( )