As a young Russian girl during WW II, Wassiljewa endured starvation, illness, and back-breaking labor at the hands of the Nazis. Her memories, recounted in journal form, make for an awkwardly engrossing, heart-wrenching tale. Living in Wyritza at the time, a small vacation town only 60 kilometers from Leningrad, Wassiljewa recalls the Nazis' black tanks grinding down the dirt road. No food was available; her family and their neighbors were left by the invaders to starve. As a 13-year-old, she traveled many miles on foot and traded what was left of her family's possessions for corn. They fended off hunger for awhile, but were powerless to prevent the death of Wassiljewa's ill father, or her deportation to Germany as a ``forced laborer.'' The picture of German society during wartime is chilling: German citizens accepted slave labor as their due, and most ignored the hunger that kept Wassiljewa and her fellow prisoners weak and sick. After the antiseptic, televised images of Desert Storm, readers will be shocked by the cruelty and inhumanity Wassiljewa endured. Throughout the entire nightmare, however, her heart remained a young girl's, and she tenderly recounts the friendships and first love that she found in the work camps. Vivid prose makes palpable the euphoria at the war's end, as well as the overwhelming love she felt when she was reunited with her mother and sister. A harrowing, uplifting story. (Memoir. 10+)
Pub Date: May 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-13446-9
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1997
Emotionally resonant and not without humor, this impressive debut about survival and connection, resourcefulness and...
Two girls on the racial margins of mid-19th-century America team up and head west.
As the book opens, Samantha, a 15-year-old Chinese-American violinist, yearns to move back to New York City in 1849, though her kind and optimistic father, owner of a dry goods store in the bustling outpost of Saint Joe, Missouri, has great plans for them in California. When the store burns down and her father dies, she is forced to defend herself from their predatory landlord. Suddenly on the run from the law, Samantha and Annamae, a 16-year-old African-American slave who covets freedom, disguise themselves as boys and head west on the Oregon Trail. Well-crafted and suspenseful, with more flow than ebb to the tension that stretches like taut wires across plotlines, Lee’s tale ingeniously incorporates Chinese philosophy and healing, music, art and religion, as well as issues of race and discrimination (including abolitionist views and examples of cruel slave treatment), into what is at its center a compelling love story. “Sammy” and “Andy” meet up with Cay, West and Peety, three young, good-hearted cowboys with secrets of their own, who help them on their arduous, dangerous journey.
Emotionally resonant and not without humor, this impressive debut about survival and connection, resourcefulness and perseverance will keep readers on the very edges of their seats. (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-16803-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An impressive, albeit stuffed, conclusion to the duology.
Several months after losing Orion to Lady Hong in Foul Lady Fortune (2022), Rosalind Lang sets out to save her kidnapped partner.
Since the confrontation at Warehouse 34, a heartbroken Rosalind has remained sequestered in her apartment to avoid reporters who want a glimpse of the Nationalist assassin Fortune. When the Nationalists refuse to rescue Orion and reveal plans to decommission Rosalind, she volunteers to tour the country, using her fame to boost Chinese morale in the face of Japanese military aggression. Rosalind’s true motive, however, is to lure out Lady Hong and Orion, and she sets herself as bait by claiming to possess Lady Hong’s final vial of a serum that creates invincible supersoldiers. As soon as the Communists discern Rosalind’s plan, they assign Celia Lang and Oliver Hong to follow Rosalind and capture Orion for their own cause. Meanwhile, Nationalist triple agent Silas Wu continues his single-minded pursuit of the enigmatic Communist sharpshooter Priest, unaware that Priest is actually Phoebe Hong, who is equally determined to maintain her facade as merely Orion and Oliver’s younger sister. Conflicting loyalties and long-held secrets put characters to the test in this packed but nonetheless fast-paced sequel, which is told by the main cast in third-person narration. With the stakes higher than ever, they must carefully choose whom to trust as they race against time to save their friends, family, and country.
An impressive, albeit stuffed, conclusion to the duology. (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781665905619
Page Count: 560
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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