Leif Norman photographer

THE SCHOOL PROGRAM: SCHOOL STAGE, Karen Levine

Grades 4-6: Karen Levine, Shane Peacock Grades 7-9: Susin Nielsen Middle-years students have a theatre-style experience with award-winning writers. Karen Levine presents the extraordinary story of Hana’s Suitcase. Shane Peacock is back with the final installment of the wildly popular Boy Sherlock Holmes series. This year’s MYRCA winner Susin Nielsen shares her new novel, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K Larsen.

Karen Levine is an award-winning producer with CBC Radio and creator of Hana’s Suitcase, the story of the Jewish orphan’s suitcase and a Japanese teacher and students who were determined to discover her identity. Levine first conceived the story as a radio documentary, then reframed it as a book. Since its publication ten years ago, Levine has traveled with it to classrooms and communities throughout Canada, the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan. The reactions to Hana’s brave, heartbreaking story from children, educators, and readers around the world are folded into Hana’s Suitcase Anniversary Album (Second Story). Levine lives in Toronto.