An accessible entry in a crowded, vital field, honoring those who risked everything to save others.
Liberated from the Soviets by the Nazis: Frying pan, meet fire.
When the German army marches into Krystia’s Ukrainian town, everyone greets the soldiers as liberators. Kind Mrs. Segal, ethnically Ukrainian Krystia’s Jewish neighbor, takes a lovely photograph of Krystia flinging a flower into the air as they celebrate their rescuers. The local Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians (considered ethnic groups at the time, not nationalities or religions, as Krystia makes quite clear) are perhaps excessively naïve about the goodwill of the invading Germans, as seen through Krystia’s optimistic eyes. But that hope is soon shattered, as the Nazis, like the Soviets before them, take any property they desire and hold human life cheap. Ukrainians and Poles are wretched subhumans to the Nazis, unfit for schooling or any life but labor—but that’s nothing on how they treat the local Jews. On a trumped-up charge, the Nazi commandant arrests 101 Jewish men and has them shot. Krystia sees her neighbors buried in a mass grave and their meager clothing given to ethnic German interlopers. Shockingly, the situation only deteriorates from there, as the Nazis execute their solution to the “Jewish Question.” The first-person account, based on the real-life Krystia’s memories as told to Skrypuch, reads like a memoir; despite the historically accurate body count, it retains a sense of hope.
An accessible entry in a crowded, vital field, honoring those who risked everything to save others. (historical note) (Historical fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-31053-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
A challenging exercise in decoding strong human emotions—but worth the effort.
From the Netherlands via New Zealand, 10 short stories with casts of animal characters examine varying aspects of anger, whether overt, subtle, or suppressed.
In the first tale, a firebelly toad’s anger takes the form of harsh and violent attacks on other animals, causing them great pain. The toad demands expressions of anger from the victims but perceives their anger as not real or strong enough. The victims are upset because they cannot understand the immensity of the firebelly toad’s anger. In another story, a squirrel is sad that his ant friend has gone away; he cannot be angry but waits patiently for the ant’s return—but his anger is displaced, strangely enough, onto the walls of his home. Most of the tales involve animals in varying stages of anger, some directing it inward, some lashing out at others, some fearing another’s anger, and some letting it go. Many of the male animals are actively aggressive, while many of the females display stereotypes. The ant needs to be rescued, the praying mantis is a fashionista, and the frog displays jealousy. Boutavant’s rich, nuanced illustrations depict the animals as expressing human emotions and living in humanlike dwellings while still remaining true to their species in appearance. Youngsters might be quite perplexed by the tales, for Tellegen rarely provides clues to the characters’ motivations and often leaves readers to arrive at their own conclusions. They would be well served by reading and discussing the work with a loving grown-up.
A challenging exercise in decoding strong human emotions—but worth the effort. (Illustrated stories. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-776573-45-5
Page Count: 82
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
A hard truth for hard times.
A bench and a closed door mark the milestones in an excited child’s life.
The child grows older as they faithfully await a beloved uncle who never shows. As the protagonist sits watching the door, they excitedly note the things they’ll tell their uncle about: their progress in school, an upcoming move, their new son. In scene after scene, time trundles on as the child evolves into a teen and then an adult and finally to nothing but a memory in the fruitless anticipation of a dream never realized. The uncle, it is later explained, has become one of the “disappeared.” Santana Camargo’s deceptively simple black line drawings against stark white paper allow for no meandering of attention. The protagonist’s—and readers’—focus is on the door that remains shut. Each unwaveringly hopeful line begins with “Great!” in anticipation of the visit (“Great! Then I can tell him about this girl that I like”)—and in contrast to the unseen bleak reality. The author’s unsentimental bilingual text, in English and Spanish, gives no hint as to the reason behind the protagonist’s continued pining—until the afterword, which states that though people have disappeared throughout history, during the Cold War, many governments began using the practice as a “systematic instrument of terror.” Though, according to the backmatter, this story takes place in South America, Santana Camargo notes that people have been disappeared in other places, such as Indonesia. The protagonist has few facial figures and skin the color of the page. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A hard truth for hard times. (Picture book. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77840-006-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Aldana Libros/Greystone Kids
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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