A well-told story of persistence, lost innocence, survival, and hope.
“You can make beauty anywhere,” Lida’s mother always used to say, but can Lida retain her humanity as a young Ukrainian child in a Nazi slave labor camp during World War II?
Though she’s only 9 and not even Jewish, Lida Ferezuk is part of a group of Ukrainian young people rounded up by the Nazis anyway. Heartbreakingly separated from her younger sister, Larissa, Lida eventually lands in a German labor camp. “Figure out a skill” her new friend Luka advises. “And say that you’re older.” Lida saves herself by posing as 13 and demonstrating her sewing expertise. Eventually she is forced to make bombs, which she cleverly comes to sabotage. Despite multiple hardships, Lida never gives up searching for her beloved sister. Employing a close third-person narration, Ukrainian-Canadian author Skrypuch draws on real-life stories of survivors in telling Lida’s poignant tale, and she creates a cast of young people who are devoted to one another in both thought and deed. She also sheds light on history emerging since the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Ostarbeiters (“eastern workers”), mostly from eastern Ukraine, who were persecuted by both the Nazis and, later, Stalin, if they attempted to return to their homeland after the war.
A well-told story of persistence, lost innocence, survival, and hope. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93191-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
The exquisite writing can’t compensate for the story’s overwrought elements.
In Wolk’s latest, a self-contained girl finds companionship in one of the most notoriously unfriendly of places: a Maine island.
Twelve-year-old Lucretia and her mother, both artists, have moved to fictional Candle Island for the isolation; grieving the recent loss of Lucretia’s father and with a big secret to keep, they need to be where, as her mother says, “they’ll let us be who we are.” Lucretia soon draws the ire of prickly Murdock and the tentative friendship of Bastian, her cousin, two townies with secrets of their own. Among the island’s summer people are a nosy art critic and three young sociopaths, who all complicate life for Lucretia and her mother, though in very different ways. At a sentence level, this work glows. Lucretia hears sounds as colors (although synesthesia goes unmentioned), layering them onto her narration the way she applies her oils to canvas. Wolk’s characterization and plotting, however, waver. The children too often speak with a formality that’s not attributable to the late 1960s / early ’70s setting, and Lucretia’s self-possession frequently makes her feel far older than 12. The tense cultural backdrop would be an effective one for the exploration of Wolk’s themes were it not for the three summer kids’ flagrant evil, which leaches the story of its subtlety. Most characters present white.
The exquisite writing can’t compensate for the story’s overwrought elements. (Historical fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780593698549
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
A complicated, hard, and heartfelt look at a child’s mental illness.
Even at his cousin’s wake, Jimmy maintains his snarky persona that so irritates his parents and others around him.
It is the day before the wake when Jimmy’s parents tell him that he must give a short eulogy for his 13-year-old cousin, Patrick. Immediately, Jimmy resists, as he can’t imagine any positive remarks he can make about Patrick, as Patrick had done nothing but ruin many pivotal moments in Jimmy’s life. “Patrick was the kind of guy who would kick your dog,” Jimmy explains to readers. “And not to see what the dog would do but what you would do.” Leading up to the time of the funeral, Jimmy reflects on different past experiences, times when Patrick always seemed to ruin every occasion. As the family gets closer to the actual funeral, these reflections help Jimmy to gain a more objective perspective of how troubled Patrick really was—not necessarily the intentionally destructive person Jimmy had painted Patrick to be. As Jimmy processes his memories, readers get an ever clearer understanding of a mentally ill child who desperately needs help but doesn’t get it. Schmitt simultaneously paints a realistic picture of a close but flawed family who must navigate the sudden death of a young family member and all the feelings that come with it. The book adheres to the white default.
A complicated, hard, and heartfelt look at a child’s mental illness. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0092-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2018
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
