Readers will come away with a strong sense of the resiliency of a family and a community under unique stress, though they...
The story of Jewish refugees in China during World War II is told through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl and her extended family.
When Lily Toufar and her family flee their home in Vienna in 1938, on the eve of Kristallnacht, they head for Shanghai, China. This city, so far from their roots, is one of the few places that will allow Jews to escape the oppression they are experiencing. Life in the Shanghai ghetto is full of deprivation and struggle for Lily’s family. Despite the difficulties, they are together, a reality they have to work hard to maintain. The refugees build a community with school, worship and religious traditions. Those things are clouded by outside events as Lily’s parents try to stay abreast of what is happening in the war. It gets closer following Pearl Harbor with the fear that the strict Japanese presence in China might intensify and extend to the refugees. Lily’s story is compelling, and this highly readable narrative always maintains the perspective of a child coming of age in dangerous circumstances. The story would have been strengthened by some documentation. The moving dialogue is not sourced, leaving readers to wonder whether it’s real. There are few footnotes, and most of the photos, while helpful to the story, are not credited.
Readers will come away with a strong sense of the resiliency of a family and a community under unique stress, though they will need to look elsewhere for facts to back it up. (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-927583-10-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Second Story Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Growing up in Warsaw with Mr. Singer offers more than a day of pleasure to families who joined him In My Father’s Court, from which fourteen of these nineteen episodes are adapted. But the elevenish contemporary of “Itchele” who lacks the East European frame of reference that these autobiographical sketches demand may have trouble relating to the bittersweetness of the Hasidic upbringing as the lonely son of the rabbi of Krochmalna Street; to his mysterious joy-fear on contemplating the Cabala; to the esoteric character of his family’s Jewish orthodoxy; to the distance between Jew and Gentile so absolute and so very enduring…Mr. Singer’s words as Grandfather-storyteller are best read aloud and interpreted by a grandfather who shares his memories, who can communicate Singer’s hindsights with the authority and spirit of his insights, who can mediate between Singer’s remoteness to the child and his greatness. 9-11
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1969
ISBN: 0374416966
Page Count: 240
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1969
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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