The Color of Courage Finalist in Prestigious Benjamin Franklin Awards

LOS ANGELES - March 19, 2015 - PRLog -- The Color of Courage—A Boy at War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski (Aquila Polonica Publishing, Nov. 2014) has just been named as a finalist for the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Award in two different categories: Autobiography/Memoirs, and Interior Design (1-2 Color).

The winner will be announced in a ceremony held in Austin, Texas, the evening of April 10, 2015. Now in its 27th year, the Benjamin Franklin Award, sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), is the premier awards competition in independent publishing, recognizing excellence in independent publishing. There were nearly 1,400 entries this year.

In his Foreword to this remarkable diary of a boy soldier during World War II, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lech Walesa calls The Color of Courage “a superb lesson of humanity.” The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, writing the Introduction to the book, praises The Color of Courage as “an inspiring read.” Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic & International Studies, says: “Compelling, readable, and very moving.”

“We’re excited to learn that The Color of Courage is a finalist in two categories for the 2015 Ben Franklin Awards,” said Aquila Polonica president Terry Tegnazian. “This is a rare look at World War II through the eyes of a young boy soldier that stays with you long after you close the book.” To learn more: http://www.polandww2.com/color-of-courage/color-of-courage-about-the-book

Julian Kulski was a 10-year-old Boy Scout living in Warsaw when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. His diary follows his wartime experience from ages 10 to 16. He quickly begins his own personal war against the Germans with small acts of sabotage but soon, at age 12, is recruited into the Underground Army by his Scoutmaster, where he is trained in weapons handling and military tactics. Kulski undertakes a secret mission into the Warsaw Ghetto, is captured by the Gestapo, sentenced to Auschwitz, beaten, rescued, fights in a Commando unit during the vicious street fighting of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and ends as a 16-year-old German POW...finally risking a dash for freedom onto an American truck instead of waiting for “liberation” by the Soviets. Watch the book trailer: www.polww2.com/CourageTrailer

Kulski’s diary is enriched by more than 150 photos and illustrations, 13 maps, and 11 “Digital Extras,” which are short videos created by Aquila Polonica from historical film and audio material that bring Kulski’s story to life in an unprecedented way. Watch sample Digital Extras: www.polww2.com/SampleDigitalExtras

Interior design, typesetting and cover art are the work of talented Los Angeles designer Ewa Wojciak, Senior Lecturer of Fine Arts at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Although this is her first book for Aquila Polonica, Wojciak has an extensive background as a designer and creative director primarily for the entertainment industry, with a client list that includes Disney, CBS, HBO, Sony, Universal Pictures and Fox, as well as in advertising agencies and print media. In The Color of Courage, Wojciak brings a fresh, contemporary look to this historical memoir, with pull quotes that draw the reader through the text, and an innovative use of thumbnail images and QR codes augmented by URLs to incorporate the multimedia Digital Extras into the print book.

Aquila Polonica is an award-winning independent publisher based in Los Angeles, specializing in publishing, in English, the World War II experience of Poland—the first of the Allies to fight Hitler. See more at: www.AquilaPolonica.com