Fun as a ghost story but doesn’t fulfill its goal of exploring antisemitism in America.
A new girl deals with more than one kind of haunting.
Morgan Calvino just moved to Long Island from Brooklyn and is having a hard time adjusting. She’s obsessed with a series of Japanese novels, doesn’t know how to wakeboard like the other kids, and also just moved into a notorious haunted house. She reluctantly joins forces with Joel Applebaum, who is described as creepy and weird by the girls Morgan tries to befriend, to unravel mysteries surrounding the child-sized Nazi uniform she finds in the attic, the Hitler Youth camp that existed nearby during the 1930s, and how to send a restless spirit to its resting place (answer: a mix of kindness and the Indigenous practice of smudging with sage). The chills are creepy and well executed, as is the awkwardness of being a new kid in a new environment. However, in a book grappling with the legacy of the Nazi Party in suburban White America, the Nazi characters, children and adults alike, are given more interior life and character development than the single Jewish character. Through flashbacks and one encounter with a friend’s great-grandfather, readers are given multiple opportunities to empathize with and feel sorry for Nazi youth, who are presented as either generic bullies or victims of circumstance with no investment in their shared ideology, a troubling conclusion to present. Characters are cued as White except for one friend who is Black.
Fun as a ghost story but doesn’t fulfill its goal of exploring antisemitism in America. (author’s note) (Paranormal. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75432-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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