When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler - ADVISABLE

When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler, 328 pages. Aladdin (Simon), 2021. $19 

Language: G (0 swears, 0‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG (non-graphic) 

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - ADVISABLE 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

Summer 1936, 9yo Leo, Max, and Elsa were best friends, enjoying a perfect day at the Ferris Wheel in Vienna, Austria. A year later everything changes – Elsa’s Jewish family is moving to Czechoslovakia to get away from the anti-Jewish climate, Max’s father has joined Hitler’s party and starts rising through the ranks, and Leo has been banished from his school because he is Jewish. Soon Leo’s family will escape to Canada, while Max is drawn farther into Hitler’s hate. A series of chance encounters will bring two of them together, while the one survivor will wait years to know the fates of the other former best friends. 

Kessler paints a picture of WWII through the eyes of children, torn apart and molded by the hate of the adults and others around them. A good addition for a large Holocaust collection. 

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS