- How do Jan and Antonina's skills as zookeepers come in handy when hiding refugees?
- With so many stories from World War II, why is the story of Jan and Antonina worth being told?
- What bits of history did you learn from this book that you didn't already know?
- What does Antonina do to try and allow her son to have a "normal" childhood? Does it work?
- Why does Ackerman decide to focus on Antonina for most of the narrative?
- Ackerman sometimes deviates from Antonina to talk about other historical figures. Which figures does she choose, and what does she say about them? How do they fit into the overall story?
- Why did Ackerman choose to write this book as non-fiction instead of embellishing it and writing it as historical fiction? Does her writing style work for this material?