Reviews

?Riveting. Stirringly understated.?Kirkus Reviews"Mazer writes with a simplicity that personalizes the history. Direct. Honest."Kirkus Reviews

Gr 4-7-A touching novel that begins in 1940 and ends in 1945. Mazer follows 12-year-old Karin Levi and her experiences first as a hidden Jewish child in France, next as a traveling refugee, and, finally, as an inmate in the displaced persons camp in Oswego, NY. After Karin, her mother, and older brother leave France, they stay with a kind man in Italy. When it becomes clear that they must flee, the girl's mother is too ill to continue, and the two siblings must leave her behind. Throughout the book, the child deals with her feelings of loss by writing her mother letters. Mazer captures the refugee experience as Karin travels from place to place in constant fear with no sense of belonging, until she finally settles in at Oswego. Although the prose occasionally becomes strained and even saccharine, such as when the girl refers to her family as her "beloveds," for the most part, Karin's voice is realistic. Despite everything she has been through, she has her moments of petty jealousy and preteen difficulties. However, when her brother finally tells her that their mother did not survive, she manages to overcome her grief and look to the future when they will live with their father's aunt in California. Libraries looking to expand the scope of their Holocaust literature will find this book a welcome addition.- Amy Lilien-Harper, Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

?Riveting. Stirringly understated.?Kirkus Reviews"Mazer writes with a simplicity that personalizes the history. Direct. Honest."Kirkus Reviews