A wrenching Holocaust story about flight, fear, and a child left alone. In 1943, Dr. Hannah Mai and her two daughters flee Lawoczne, Poland, trying to get across the Hungarian border. Minna, 17, is able to manage the brutal physical trek, but seven-year-old Malka becomes ill. Her fever and sores prompt Hannah’s gut-wrenching decision to leave Malka behind with Jews who promise to care for her. Unexpectedly abandoned, however, Malka spends four months on her own, ending up back in Poland. Occasionally she is cared for, but more often she wanders deserted ghettos alone, hiding in coal chutes and scavenging for scraps of food. Only luck and her blond (though filthy) hair keep her alive. Malka’s survival extracts a grim psychological toll. Although concentration camps are never seen, the trauma of this war is profoundly documented in the shattering reunion between Malka and Hannah, who has dared to re-enter Poland in search of her daughter. Heartbreaking historical fiction based loosely on the real Malka Mai’s life, this belongs with the best Holocaust literature. (afterword) (Historical fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-399-23984-7
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2003
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION
Did you like this book?
Beautifully written historical fiction about giddy, queer first love.
GET IT
Finally, the intersectional, lesbian, historical teen novel so many readers have been waiting for.
Lily Hu has spent all her life in San Francisco’s Chinatown, keeping mostly to her Chinese American community both in and out of school. As she makes her way through her teen years in the 1950s, she starts growing apart from her childhood friends as her passion for rockets and space exploration grows—along with her curiosity about a few blocks in the city that her parents have warned her to avoid. A budding relationship develops with her first White friend, Kathleen, and together they sneak out to the Telegraph Club lesbian bar, where they begin to explore their sexuality as well as their relationship to each other. Lo’s lovely, realistic, and queer-positive tale is a slow burn, following Lily’s own gradual realization of her sexuality while she learns how to code-switch between being ostensibly heterosexual Chinatown Lily and lesbian Telegraph Bar Lily. In this meticulously researched title, Lo skillfully layers rich details, such as how Lily has to deal with microaggressions from gay and straight women alike and how all of Chinatown has to be careful of the insidious threat of McCarthyism. Actual events, such as Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s 1943 visit to San Francisco, form a backdrop to this story of a journey toward finding one’s authentic self.
Beautifully written historical fiction about giddy, queer first love. (author’s note) (Historical romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-55525-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Did you like this book?
PERSPECTIVES
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
A century before the events of Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy, another everyday heroine gets entangled with demon-slaying Shadowhunters. Sixteen-year-old orphaned Tessa comes to London to join her brother but is imprisoned by the grotesque Dark Sisters. The sisters train the unwilling Tessa in previously unknown shapeshifter abilities, preparing her to be a pawn in some diabolical plan. A timely rescue brings Tessa to the Institute, where a group of misfit Shadowhunters struggles to fight evil. Though details differ, the general flavor of Tessa’s new family will be enjoyably familiar to the earlier trilogy’s fans; the most important is Tessa’s rescuer Will, the gorgeous, sharp-tongued teenager with a mysterious past and a smile like “Lucifer might have smiled, moments before he fell from Heaven.” The lush, melodramatic urban fantasy setting of the Shadowhunter world morphs seamlessly into a steampunk Victorian past, and this new series provides the setup for what will surely be a climactic battle against hordes of demonically powered brass clockworks. The tale drags in places, but this crowdpleaser’s tension-filled conclusion ratchets toward a new set of mysteries. (Steampunk. 13-15)
Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-7586-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
Did you like this book?
© Copyright 2022 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
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.
