Shortly after the end of WW II, 11-year-old Etienne visits his grandfather's farm for the summer and discovers a shameful secret that the French village has been hiding since the war. As Grand-päre drives Etienne from the station in his wagon, they pass a group of refugee children on the road. Etienne is used to these ragged and forlorn strangers and likes to give them food and money, but Grand-päre drives by them as though he doesn't see them. Etienne thinks his grandfather is being heartless, but the truth is that Grand- päre doesn't see the refugees because they are not there: They all died in concentration camps. During the war, many children had sought refuge in Grand-päre's isolated rural community, but when the Nazis presented the village with an ultimatum, the townspeople gave the children up in order to save themselves. Now they try to forget the past, but the children return to exhort Etienne, who is himself half- Jewish, to remember what was done to them. They do not blame the townspeople for handing them over to the Nazis, but for denying what happened. Because of Etienne, their memory will live on. Without horrific photographs or artifacts, Schnur (This Thing Called Love, 1992, etc.) dramatizes the importance of remembrance. (Illustrations not seen) (Fiction. 8+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-13281-2
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
It’s 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in “the land of ‘Sit down, Francine’ and ‘Be quiet, Francine’ ” at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she’s encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl—who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture—learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, “duck and cover” and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage—a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-50455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
From England’s Children’s Laureate, a searing WWI-era tale of a close extended family repeatedly struck by adversity and injustice. On vigil in the trenches, 17-year-old Thomas Peaceful looks back at a childhood marked by guilt over his father’s death, anger at the shabby treatment his strong-minded mother receives from the local squire and others—and deep devotion to her, to his brain-damaged brother Big Joe, and especially to his other older brother Charlie, whom he has followed into the army by lying about his age. Weaving telling incidents together, Morpurgo surrounds the Peacefuls with mean-spirited people at home, and devastating wartime experiences on the front, ultimately setting readers up for a final travesty following Charlie’s refusal of an order to abandon his badly wounded brother. Themes and small-town class issues here may find some resonance on this side of the pond, but the particular cultural and historical context will distance the story from American readers—particularly as the pace is deliberate, and the author’s hints about where it’s all heading are too rare and subtle to create much suspense. (Fiction. 11-13, adult)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-63648-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2004
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