NATALIE IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWASTIKA

In Constable’s poignant debut YA novel, a Jewish girl navigates childhood in France during World War II.

Eight-year-old Natalie lives with Papa and Maman and two sisters in German-occupied Le Vesinet, a small town outside Paris. It’s 1940, and Natalie’s father has just been taken to the hospital, where she can no longer visit him. Papa is Protestant, but Maman was born Jewish, although she tells Natalie she converted to Christianity many years ago. Now, with Papa away, Maman has been outed, and life is becoming more dangerous. Constable’s third-person narration delivers the story entirely via Natalie’s perspective. Over the next two years, she begins to experience anti-Semitism in school, but she is still quite naïve, often confused by her family’s new reality. In the spring of 1943, the family must separate and go into hiding. It’s decided that “Oncle Marc” (Papa’s brother) and “Tante Pauline” will bring Natalie to their home in Montreux, Switzerland, for several months, where her father, who has tuberculosis, is now living. Because Natalie doesn’t have a passport, she and Pauline make the risky border crossing by foot at night. Constable is at her best when she describes the hardships of living in battle-torn France—the drastic food shortages, the German soldiers seizing private homes, the requirement that Maman wear the yellow Star of David in public, and the restrictions, prohibitions, and blatant hostilities that are attendant to that star. Younger readers should be able to relate to Natalie’s slowly growing understanding of the adult world.

Historically informative and helmed by a sensitive, imaginative girl.