The Extra

　　A deeply moving and unique story of survival by the award-winning writer Kathryn Lasky. One ordinary afternoon, fifteen-year-old Lilo and her family are suddenly picked up by Hitler’s police and imprisoned. Just when it seems certain that they will be sent  to a labour camp, Lilo is chosen by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to work as a film extra. Life on the film set is a bizarre alternate reality and the beautiful, charming Riefenstahl is always present. But Riefenstahl  also answers the slightest provocation with malice and flaunts the power to assign prisoners to life or death.

　　People often ask Newbery Honor author Kathryn Lasky how and why she writes both fiction and nonfiction. The author, who has written more than forty books, answers, "I am equally attracted to both types of writing because for me the most important thing is if a story is real. Real stories can be either fiction or nonfiction. I am sure a lot of folks must think I'm rather scattered doing all these different books," Kathryn Lasky admits. "But to me, the whole part of being an artist is to get up every morning and reinvent the world."  Kathryn Lasky and her husband live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.