Toronto author Kathy Kacer is best known for writing children’s historical fiction and non-fiction focused on the Holocaust.

In October, Kacer co-edited We Are Their Voice: Young People Respond to the Holocaust (Second Story Press), a collection of letters, essays, fiction, art, and poetry submitted by students from around the world. Kacer, whose parents are Holocaust survivors, recently travelled to Thiesi, Sardinia, a small town of 3,000, to meet local students who participated in the project.

The trip was organized by her email friend Maria Manca, a middle-grade teacher who has read Kacer’s 2006 novel Hiding Edith to her students for several years. Kacer tells Q&Q she thanked Manca for her “leadership in teaching thousands of children in Sardinia about this important time in history. There is no Jewish presence on this island, and my books depend on the initiative of teachers, like Maria, who recognize their universal appeal and importance.”