A thrilling, emotional tale of one girl’s experience of the fall of Communism in Romania.
When the enemy is everywhere, it’s impossible to hide.
Readers might not think it’s a great risk to watch a movie. Or write stories. Or publish poems. But in Romania in 1989, these are all crimes punishable by kidnapping, torture, even death. Any act that goes against the Communist Party and its leader is a threat, and spies are everywhere. Ileana’s sense of danger sharpens when she and her parents discover their apartment has been bugged. What might the secret police have heard? Do they know about Ileana’s own habit of writing stories? Ileana is sent to her mother’s estranged parents’ village high in the mountains, for safety. There, she discovers lessons in loyalty, bravery, and friendship that prove essential when she’s faced with her greatest challenge. Historical fiction interwoven with parallel, altered fairy tales, Kramer’s debut novel is rich with connections to today’s world while easily sidestepping the pitfall of heavy-handedness. Ileana is a charming, complex character who stumbles and makes mistakes as she builds up confidence, bravery, and wisdom against a wonderfully imagined backdrop populated with fascinating secondary characters. Her role in battling the Securitate is both inspiring and believable. Characters are pale-skinned Eastern Europeans.
A thrilling, emotional tale of one girl’s experience of the fall of Communism in Romania. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3068-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A promising debut.
The horrors of the Guatemalan civil war are filtered through the eyes of a boy coming of age.
Set in Chopán in 1981, this verse novel follows the life of Carlos, old enough to feed the chickens but not old enough to wring their necks as the story opens. Carlos’ family and other villagers are introduced in early poems, including Santiago Luc who remembers “a time when there were no soldiers / driving up in jeeps, holding / meetings, making / laws, scattering / bullets into the trees, / hunting guerillas.” On an errand for his mother when soldiers attack, Carlos makes a series of decisions that ultimately save his life but leave him doubting his manliness and bravery. An epilogue of sorts helps tie the main narrative to the present, and the book ends on a hopeful note. In her debut, Brown has chosen an excellent form for exploring the violence and loss of war, but at times, stylistic decisions (most notably attempts at concrete poetry) appear to trump content. While some of the individual poems may be difficult for readers to follow and the frequent references to traditional masculinity may strike some as patriarchal, the use of Spanish is thoughtful, as are references to local flora and fauna. The overall effect is a moving introduction to a subject seldom covered in fiction for youth.
A promising debut. (glossary, author Q&A) (Verse/historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6516-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Compassionate and complex.
An orphan in occupied France during World War II finds his courage and a sense of family.
Thirteen-year-old Lucas Dubois is a foundling who’s growing up in the abbey orphanage in the village of Lamorlaye. He has such a tender heart that the other boys call him “Petit Éclair.” Lucas rescues a litter of kittens from being drowned on a nun’s orders and goes to hide them in one of the stables left empty in nearby Chantilly after their owners took their thoroughbreds and fled from the Nazis. But the stable is already in use—Alice, the teenage daughter of an English horse trainer, is protecting a racehorse from being commissioned for the war until she can be smuggled to Kentucky in a month’s time. Lucas’ job delivering groceries takes him into the nearby Lebensborn, a maternity home that takes babies who meet “Aryan” standards away from their young mothers and sends them for adoption by Nazi families. There, Lucas befriends Claire, who’s desperate to keep her baby, and his empathy leads him to a rash and dangerous nighttime flight along the five-kilometer horse training track known as the Lions’ Run. This immersive story is driven by Lucas’ emotional yearnings and the sometimes complicated relationships among the well-drawn characters, but the history and the specific setting are accurate and carefully delineated, creating a strong sense of place. Klassen’s spot art and map of the region adorn the text.
Compassionate and complex. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781250392817
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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