Content: G (some Holocaust based violence)
BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ESSENTIAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
10yo Renee lives with her sister, 8yo Herta, and their parents in Bratislava. Renee is the only person in the family that can hear. The other three people are deaf. The family relies on Renee being their ears, and telling them in sign language everything that is going on. The Nazis invade Bratislava and quickly start mistreating the Jews. Soon they all have to wear yellow stars on their clothing. Renee is blond so the soldiers do not recognize her as Jewish. This helps Renee, with Herta by the hand, move around Bratislava. One day their dad moves them out of the city to a farm where he thinks they will be safer. He has to pay the farmer a lot of money every month to keep the girls. After several months the money stop coming and the farmer sends the girls back to Bratislava. They are unable to find their parents, but learn that they have been moved to Auschwitz. The girls, being the only Jews left in town are soon on their way in a cattle car, but to Bergen-Belsen. What they lived through there is horrifying.
This book is from an oral history project on the survivors of the Holocaust. It reads much like an oral history and it is a fast and easy read. It is well written, and I could vividly "see" Renee and Harta and the trials they endured. When the war ended Renee was 12yo or 13yo, but she weighed less than a three year old. This is a must read, a really good book. It goes well with World War II and would be interesting to children studying that period of time. I highly recommend this book.
Ellen-Anita, Librarian
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