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ANNIE'S PROMISE by Sonia Levitin

ANNIE'S PROMISE

by Sonia Levitin

Pub Date: April 30th, 1993
ISBN: 0-689-31752-2
Publisher: Atheneum

In a third book about the Platts, who fled Germany in Journey to America (1970) and built a new life in L.A. in Silver Days (1989), youngest daughter Annie, 13, is attending a Quaker camp in WW II's last weeks. Still weak from an appendectomy, Annie blossoms at camp, easily making friends (especially with Tallahassee, an African-American in her cabin); enjoying a crush on a junior counselor; becoming a favorite of the director; and starting a camp newspaper. Troubles echoing the world outside don't loom large, but, still, after Annie plays a cruel prank on an obnoxious, racist camper, her conscience troubles her. Home again, Annie finds her family in disarray: Ruth's soldier, traumatized by seeing the death camps, jilts her; rebelling at Papa's close supervision, Lisa moves out; and when Tallahassee visits, Papa—already in turmoil because of his daughters' new independence—reveals his own racism. The conclusion—Annie confronts Papa (``You are just like the Nazis. This is why there are wars!''), then runs away, back to camp, where she realizes her own limitations before coming home for a reconciliation—is overtidy (Annie does have a lot of epiphanies at once); but, still, the lessons are valuable and the end is satisfyingly dramatic. Not as strong as its predecessors, but Platt family friends won't want to miss it. (Fiction. 11-14)