This is a solid addition to one of the most uneven collections of literature for children: Holocaust-related historical...
Two kindhearted, confirmed-bachelor brothers take in an endangered little Jewish girl during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam.
Historical fiction for children is fraught with traps, and none more so than those introducing young readers to Holocaust history. This novel manages to walk that tightrope, allowing children to learn some grim realities without annihilating their sense of hope or resorting to stereotypes that undermine the ability of the genre to increase readers’ empathy. The text’s distinctiveness lies in its style: Rather than presenting one protagonist’s point of view—as in Lois Lowry’s exemplary Number the Stars—the third-person-omniscient perspective allows readers to identify with several characters throughout the tale. Readers feel the terror and sorrow of Beatrix and her mother as Mamma is forced by soldiers to leave the tram that is run by brothers Hans and Lars; they empathize with the brothers during the humorous passages in which the redoubtable neighbor Mrs. Vos teaches them how to care for a little girl; they feel the alternating waves of uneasiness and relief experienced regularly by people under occupation. Most of the detailed action occurs from 1942-1945, but the tale wraps up in 1973, when Beatrix is mother to a 10-year-old daughter.
This is a solid addition to one of the most uneven collections of literature for children: Holocaust-related historical fiction. (foreword, afterword) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55451-659-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl...
The closing of her favorite swimming pool opens 11-year-old Gloriana Hemphill’s eyes to the ugliness of racism in a small Mississippi town in 1964.
Glory can’t believe it… the Hanging Moss Community Pool is closing right before her July Fourth birthday. Not only that, she finds out the closure’s not for the claimed repairs needed, but so Negroes can’t swim there. Tensions have been building since “Freedom Workers” from the North started shaking up status quo, and Glory finds herself embroiled in it when her new, white friend from Ohio boldly drinks from the “Colored Only” fountain. The Hemphills’ African-American maid, Emma, a mother figure to Glory and her sister Jesslyn, tells her, “Don’t be worrying about what you can’t fix, Glory honey.” But Glory does, becoming an activist herself when she writes an indignant letter to the newspaper likening “hateful prejudice” to “dog doo” that makes her preacher papa proud. When she’s not saving the world, reading Nancy Drew or eating Dreamsicles, Glory shares the heartache of being the kid sister of a preoccupied teenager, friendship gone awry and the terrible cost of blabbing people’s secrets… mostly in a humorously sassy first-person voice.
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl who takes a stand. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-33180-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Japanese-American Aki and her family operate an asparagus farm in Westminster, Calif., until they are summarily uprooted and...
Two third-grade girls in California suffer the dehumanizing effects of racial segregation after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1942 in this moving story based on true events in the lives of Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu.
Japanese-American Aki and her family operate an asparagus farm in Westminster, Calif., until they are summarily uprooted and dispatched to an internment camp in Poston, Ariz., for the duration of World War II. As Aki endures the humiliation and deprivation of the hot, cramped barracks, she wonders if there’s “something wrong with being Japanese.” Sylvia’s Mexican-American family leases the Munemitsu farm. She expects to attend the local school but faces disappointment when authorities assign her to a separate, second-rate school for Mexican kids. In response, Sylvia’s father brings a legal action against the school district arguing against segregation in what eventually becomes a successful landmark case. Their lives intersect after Sylvia finds Aki’s doll, meets her in Poston and sends her letters. Working with material from interviews, Conkling alternates between Aki and Sylvia’s stories, telling them in the third person from the war’s start in 1942 through its end in 1945, with an epilogue updating Sylvia’s story to 1955.Pub Date: July 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58246-337-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Tricycle
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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