The Ghosts of Izieu is a classic ghost story set in modern France. Elise is a young English girl on holiday in France, with her father and stepmother. Elise resents her father's new wife and is bored in the hot, dusty French village. Her father is keen for her to share his interest, in local history She, however, is reluctant, until she becomes a part of it herself. She begins to see the ghosts of children who seem to be from another time. She meets the mysterious Stefan who appears strangely afraid of something in the town. When she seeks refuge from the summer heat in the cold village church, she is hurled back in time and meets a group of Jewish refugee children, who are in hiding from the Gestapo. The children call her 'Eloise'. She realises that she must leave the children in order to return to her own time and regain her own identity. The village's war memorial reveals to her, upon her return, the horrible fate with which the children met. The experience makes her reassess her relationship with her father and stepmother, and she determines to try harder to make it succeed. She is also able to appreciate fully the importance of remembering those who died in the Holocaust. Background and Themes: The Ghosts of Izieu combines the two themes of the Holocaust and the supernatural. The ghosts in question are of a group of Jewish children persecuted in the 1940's. At the heart of the story is the moral message that it is important to remember the Holocaust, so that it will not be repeated. The young girl at the centre of the story becomes more aware of this as the plot develops. Her father's stories about the horrors of the deportations and concentration camps seem very abstract until she meets the ghosts and shares their terror. On a broader level the story is a reminder of how intolerance and racism can eventually lead to atrocities, such as the murder of the children in the book. 20x13cm, illustrated in full colour, 42 pages & Audiocassette.