Accessible, vital, and timely.
The memoir of Holocaust survivor Gruener, who spent much of the war in hiding and has gone on to ensure it will not be forgotten.
In the 1930s, in what was then Lvov, Poland, Luncia Gamzer is born to Jewish parents. Luncia, a brown-haired, light-skinned girl, is a happy child, but when she’s 5, Germany’s invasion of Poland destroys her world. Could young Luncia have foreseen the eventual extermination of most of Lvov’s 200,000 Jews? As Gruener writes, “you can see the truth in hindsight but not as it’s happening in the moment.” Luncia’s awful wartime experiences seem almost benign compared to the horrific experiences of Jack Gruener, the boy who’d one day become her husband, which are lightly fictionalized in Prisoner B-3087 (2013), co-authored by both Grueners and Alan Gratz, who contributes the foreword to this title. She starves in a ghetto, she’s helpless while her extended family members are murdered, she starves again while hidden by family friends. When the Soviets liberate Lvov, she becomes a displaced person, trying to be normal after a childhood hiding, silent, in the dark. It doesn’t take Luncia long to relearn how to walk and talk, but that’s the easy part. This blunt, important history is less about the Holocaust itself and more about its aftermath for a traumatized refugee girl becoming a young woman in America after a multiyear wait for visas. She changes her name to Ruth, but becoming an American teenager who understands “fun” is more complicated than a name change.
Accessible, vital, and timely. (map, photographs) (Memoir. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-62745-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of Terry Deary and Martin Brown’s Horrible Histories and their ilk are unlikely to consider this latest imitation more than an also-ran. Oliver surveys British history from the Isles’ Ice Age formation to the not-exactly-hot-off-the-presses 2005 news that London will host the 2012 Olympics. Though accurate enough in his broad picture, the author’s debatable facts (“…the Romans introduced really useful things such as toilets and even vegetables to the people of Britain”) and awkwardly written generalizations (“The Celtic kings consulted religious advisors to help them rule, known as druids”) drag the bland text down even further. Pinder's pen-and-ink illustrations attempt snark but too often fall flat: “That girl was always getting in my way,” remarks Bloody Mary as Lady Jane Grey’s newly severed head bounces by. This catalog of major British kings, queens, wars, pivotal events and cultural milestones is unlikely to entertain—much less resonate with—American audiences. (index, royal timeline) (Nonfiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-906082-72-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Buster/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Thirteen prominent American men and women are briefly profiled in this collection. Chronologically ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Barack Obama, each entry features an inspiring quote from its subject and a concise explanation of his or her context in history. Opposite each page of text is a watercolor painting by the author depicting an image or montage of the notable individual and illustrating the work they achieved or how they lived. Each one evokes the emotions the book is meant to inspire: courage, strength and determination. Franklin Roosevelt gazes reassuringly out at readers above a line of hungry people at a soup kitchen; Rachel Carson smiles at readers against a picture of a soaring bald eagle and an inset of her peering into a microscope. The selection includes four women and five male ethnic minorities. Almost all are familiar faces in collective biographies, including Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, but some names may be new to young readers, such as Emma Lazarus and Cesar Chavez. Included in the backmatter are thumbnail biographies of each figure and a list of source notes. The profiles are indeed inspiring, and younger readers will likely learn something new. For deeper research, students will have to look elsewhere but could use this book as an excellent starting point. (Collective biography. 8-11)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8225-6810-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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