In this example of history- and literature-lite, teens are given a rather heavy-handed lesson about the evils of the Holocaust. Nicole Burns is a typical 16-year-old who undergoes a life-changing experience after a riot breaks out at the local museum where her class has gone to see an "Anne Frank in the World" exhibit. Nicole is knocked unconscious and wakes up to find herself in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942, now part of a Jewish family and therefore subject to the increasingly Draconian laws against Jews. While in hiding, Nicole and her family are betrayed by a close friend and Nicole ends up on one of the cattle cars traveling east to the concentration camps. On the crowded train, she meets someone who seems eerily familiar, a girl whom she soon recognizes as Anne Frank. Memories stir in Nicole and details about Anne's final years—details that she remembers from her 21st-century life—rush into her mind. Nicole ends up in the gas chamber where, on the point of death, she finds herself back in 21st-century America soon becoming convinced that her experiences were real. What Nicole can remember from one era to another is often confusing and inconsistent. Sometimes French Nicole remembers the future, as when Anne Frank makes her appearance, but other times she seems not to know what the outcome of the Holocaust (and therefore her probable fate) will be. Although admirable in its intent to make the Holocaust relevant to today's adolescents, the story is overly obvious, pounding the reader over the head with its message. It is difficult to imagine this on stage (its roots are in the theater) because the dialogue is so trite and forced. But there may be an audience for it among reluctant teen readers who can relate to these airheads. For a much better time-travel novel involving the Holocaust, stick with Jane Yolen’s The Devil's Arithmetic. (timeline) (Fiction. 11-16)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-23329-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Revisiting characters from The Cook’s Family (1998), Yep again explores personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese-American family. Suddenly saddled with caring for four younger siblings after a wealthy businessman hires her widowed mother as a governess—or amah—for his daughter, Stephanie, Amy Chin is forced to miss several ballet rehearsals for Cinderella, to listen to glowing accounts of Stephanie’s sophistication, and to accept expensive clothing and other gifts from her. While gaining new insight into how Cinderella’s stepsisters must have felt, Amy’s understandable resentment is compounded by the news that Stephanie will be moving in while her father is away on a trip. Yep builds that feeling to fever pitch, then dispels it by casting Stephanie as a lonely child hurt by one parent’s death and the other’s neglect; becoming friends, Stephanie and Amy clear the air and mend some fences with their well-meaning parents in a climactic face-off. The characters, most of them familiar from previous appearances, are distinct if not particularly complex, the San Francisco setting is vividly drawn, and the issues are laid out in plain terms and tidily resolved. It’s formulaic, but not entirely superficial. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23040-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More than a decade after the publication of the first books in this trilogy (Which Way Freedom, 1986; Out From This Place 1988), Hansen completes her story of Obi and Easter, two escaped slaves from South Carolina, who become separated during the Civil War. After leaving the army, Obi searches for Easter, learning that she has moved to Philadelphia to become a teacher, but intends to establish her home in the black settlement of New Canaan. While awaiting her return, Obi struggles to care for Grace, Scipio, and Araba, three orphans who fled a massacre in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a black town destroyed by whites. Much of the story is told in letters between Obi and Easter, as Obi fights storms, disease, and bigotry while he builds a carpentry business. His love for Easter and her determination to help build New Canaan finally leads Obi to find his place in life. While the earlier novels set forth the romance more clearly, this one is just as strong in its enlivening depiction of African-American history. Hansen deftly weaves real historical events into the novel, presenting a vivid account of a budding black settlement during Reconstruction. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8027-8636-7
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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