When Israeli author Orlev, who drew on his own ghetto experiences in The Island on Bird Street (1984; Batchelder Award), met a certain Polish journalist, they found that both had been boys in Warsaw during WW II; Orlev kept ``Marek's'' extensive confidences secret (including his discovery in 1942 that his father—executed in 1934 as a Communist—was Jewish) until his death in 1987. Now, Orlev shapes Marek's account into a powerful novel about a devout 13-year-old Catholic in a virulently anti-Semitic society, responding to his experiences by coming to champion the Jews walled in near his home. With stepfather Antony, Marek already knows the ghetto: traveling through sewers, they take food to sell there at high prices, often returning with a baby to hide with the nuns (no charge). Still, Marek is casually anti-Semitic until he helps rob a Jewish escapee and is caught by his mother, who points out that ``You sentenced him to death'' and reveals his own heritage. Deeply shaken, Marek sets out to make amends. He befriends a man he sees crossing himself the wrong way and ultimately leads him back, underground, to the ghetto, during the heroic ghetto uprising. Orlev's characters are sobering, believable blends: e.g., Antony dislikes Jews but, knowing Marek's background, wants to adopt him; he turns others' dire needs to profit but has ``nothing against human beings.'' Many others in this richly authentic story are equally complex. Subtle, beautifully crafted, altogether compelling. (Fiction. 10+)
Pub Date: April 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-395-53808-4
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Powerful and resonant.
Four 12-year-old Sephardic Jewish girls in different time periods leave their homelands but carry their religion, culture, language, music, and heritage with them.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 sends Benvenida fleeing from Toledo with her family, though she promises to remember where she came from. In 1923, Reina celebrates Turkish independence with her longtime friend and neighbor, a Muslim boy, causing her strict father to disown her and send her to live with an aunt in Cuba as punishment. Reina brings her mother’s oud with her and passes it on to Alegra, her daughter, who serves as a brigadista in Castro’s literacy campaign before fleeing to the U.S. in 1961. In Miami in 2003, Paloma, Alegra’s daughter, who has an Afro-Cuban dad, is excited to travel to Spain with her family to explore their roots. They find a miraculous connection in Toledo. Woven through all four girls’ stories is the same Ladino song (included with an English translation); as Paloma says, “I’m connected to those who came before me through the power of the words we speak, the words we write, the words we sing, the words in which we tell our dreams.” Behar’s diligent research and her personal connection to this history, as described in a moving author’s note, shine through this story of generations of girls who use music and language to survive, tell their stories, and connect with past and future.
Powerful and resonant. (sources) (Historical fiction. 10-15)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593323403
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
An important and authentic look at the Cuban refugee experience.
A mostly wordless middle-grade graphic novel follows the journey of a Pedro Pan child, one of thousands evacuated from Cuba to the United States during the Cuban revolution.
Marisol’s story opens with black-and-white photographs of her parents’ early lives and then bursts into color. In tidily arranged panels, we see bright homes, delicious food, and beautiful tropical wildlife. Then Fidel Castro seizes power. Food grows scarce, and voices become hushed. When a bomb nearly blows apart Marisol’s bedroom window in the middle of the night, her parents make the difficult choice to send her to New York City. While the White couple who take her in are kind, she cannot understand the speech bubbles falling from people’s mouths, and her classmates are cruel. Everything is dark, gray, and cold—so unlike her vibrant isla—until she discovers the neighborhood library. She starts learning English, and her foster parents take her to the botanical gardens. The trio cook Cuban dishes and dance in the living room. Slowly, color seeps back into Marisol’s world. This beautiful and heartbreaking book bears witness to the experiences of children of the Pedro Pan generation, although not all experienced Marisol’s happy ending. Her story will resonate with Cuban children growing up on their abuelos’ stories and anyone who has had to leave their home and start over. The wordless narrative is incredibly impactful, underscoring Marisol’s alienation and the language barrier she faces.
An important and authentic look at the Cuban refugee experience. (author's note, recipe, further reading) (Historical graphic novel. 10-18)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6923-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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