A nuanced perspective on World War II and a testament to the power of a young person to resist.
A Dutch teenager is caught in a web of wartime conspiracy.
When the German army invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, Michiel was 11. He thought war would be exciting and hoped it would last a long time. Now, in the winter of 1944, he wishes the war would end. The son of the mayor of a rural village, Michiel knows how to keep a secret. No longer able to attend school, he runs errands and helps his family give shelter and sustenance to people walking hundreds of miles to bring food to their families in famine-stricken cities. He also listens with pride to Uncle Ben’s stories of his resistance work. When Michiel’s neighbor is captured by the Nazis, Michiel becomes responsible for more secrets than he thought possible. As winter stretches on and Michiel strives to do the right thing, he becomes increasingly embroiled in dangerous situations that seem to precipitate terrible consequences. Originally published in Dutch in 1973 and newly translated here, this gripping tale of conspiracy and humanity is based on the author’s childhood memories of the war. Suspenseful third-person narration provides historically and culturally specific details along with insight into Michiel’s inner thoughts. The contradictions and the horrors of war are laid out in succinct, powerful prose. Winding to a quiet yet satisfying ending, Terlouw laments the never-ending cycle of war. All characters are assumed white.
A nuanced perspective on World War II and a testament to the power of a young person to resist. (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68137-426-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: New York Review Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Sensitive subject matter that could have benefited from a subtler, more sober touch.
A Jewish girl joins up with Polish resistance groups to fight for her people against the evils of the Holocaust.
Chaya Lindner is forcibly separated from her family when they are consigned to the Jewish ghetto in Krakow. The 16-year-old is taken in by the leaders of Akiva, a fledgling Jewish resistance group that offers her the opportunity to become a courier, using her fair coloring to pass for Polish and sneak into ghettos to smuggle in supplies and information. Chaya’s missions quickly become more dangerous, taking her on a perilous journey from a disastrous mission in Krakow to the ghastly ghetto of Lodz and eventually to Warsaw to aid the Jews there in their gathering uprising inside the walls of the ghetto. Through it all, she is partnered with a secretive young girl whom she is reluctant to trust. The trajectory of the narrative skews toward the sensational, highlighting moments of resistance via cinematic action sequences but not pausing to linger on the emotional toll of the Holocaust’s atrocities. Younger readers without sufficient historical knowledge may not appreciate the gravity of the events depicted. The principal characters lack depth, and their actions and the situations they find themselves in often require too much suspension of disbelief to pass for realism.
Sensitive subject matter that could have benefited from a subtler, more sober touch. (afterword) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-14847-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
A must-read graphic novel that is both heart-rending and beautifully hopeful.
A grandmother shares her story of survival as a Jew in France during World War II.
As part of a homework assignment, Julian (Auggie’s chief tormentor in Wonder, 2012) video chats with Grandmère, who finally relates her wartime story. Born Sara Blum to a comfortable French Jewish family, she is indulged by her parents, who remain in Vichy France after 1940. Then, in 1943, after the German occupation, soldiers come to Sara’s school to arrest her and the other Jewish students. Sara hides and is soon spirited away by “Tourteau,” a student that she and the others had teased because of his crablike, crutch-assisted walk after being stricken by polio. Nonetheless, Tourteau, whose real name is Julien, and his parents shelter Sara in their barn loft for the duration of the war, often at great peril but always with care and love. Palacio begins each part of her story with quotations: from Muriel Rukeyser’s poetry, Anne Frank, and George Santayana. Her digital drawings, inked by Czap, highlight facial close-ups that brilliantly depict emotions. The narrative thread, inspired by Palacio’s mother-in-law, is spellbinding. In the final pages, the titular bird, seen in previous illustrations, soars skyward and connects readers to today’s immigration tragedies. Extensive backmatter, including an afterword by Ruth Franklin, provides superb resources. Although the book is being marketed as middle-grade, the complexities of the Holocaust in Vichy France, the growing relationship between Sara and Julien, Julien’s fate, and the mutual mistrust among neighbors will be most readily appreciated by Wonder’s older graduates.
A must-read graphic novel that is both heart-rending and beautifully hopeful. (author’s note, glossary, suggested reading list, organizations and resources, bibliography, photographs) (Graphic historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-64553-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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