In Friday’s RNS report Lisa Rose reviews “Water,” a film that shows Hindu widows surviving religious backlash: In “Water,” Canadian director Deepa Mehta tells the story of three Hindu widows living in an Indian ashram, circa 1938. The widows, one of whom is 8 years old, are abandoned by their families and forbidden to remarry according to custom. The poetic film, the final chapter in a political trilogy, advocates human rights without growing preachy.

Kathy Englehart reviews books with Holocaust stories for children: Books for children about the Holocaust were once hard to find. Not anymore. In the past few years, several outstanding children’s books have been published about that nightmare period. They introduce a difficult subject well-with respect, dignity and hope.