Corrie ten Boom (For Children)

It is a children’s version of the full-length biography of Corrie ten Boom. It tells how a watchmaker’s family in Haarlem hid Jewish people from the Nazis in a secret room, how they were caught and sent to prison, how Corrie and her sister Betsie kept trusting God in a prison camp, and how Corrie spent the rest of her life telling people about God’s love and forgiveness.

A Dutch Christian who lived from 1892 to 1983. She was the first woman in the Netherlands to qualify as a watchmaker. During the Second World War she and her family hid Jewish people in their home. After the war she travelled to more than sixty countries to tell her story, and Israel honoured her as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Every chapter is short and made to be read aloud. It begins with a Bible verse, tells one part of Corrie’s story, shows one simple thing it means for you, and ends with a short prayer. Three questions follow, to talk about together.

Some of it is sad, because the war, the prison camps and the deaths of Corrie’s father and sister were terrible things, and the book does not pretend otherwise. But it tells them gently, without frightening details, and it is above all a story of how God stayed close to Corrie and Betsie and helped Corrie to forgive.

Yes. They come from historical records and from Corrie’s own accounts of her life. A few stories were told only by Corrie herself many years later, or were remembered by her family, and the book says so when it tells them.

It is for children, to be read aloud by a grown-up or read by an older child alone. There is also a teen edition, and the full-length biography for older readers.