Pages: 432
Genre: YA, Adult Historical Fiction
Source: (Full disclosure: I
received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing’s Early
Reviewer program.)
From Goodreads:
Good-bye Marianne - As autumn turns toward winter in 1938 Berlin, life
for Marianne Kohn, a young Jewish girl, begins to crumble. First there was the
burning of the neighborhood shops. Then her father, a bookseller, must leave
the family and go into hiding. No longer allowed to go to school or even sit in
a café, Marianne's only comfort is her beloved mother.
Remember Me - Young Marianne
is one of the lucky ones. She has escaped on the first Kindertransport
organized to take Jewish children out of Germany to safety in Britain. At first
Marianne is desperate. Marianne speaks little English and is made to feel
unwelcomed in her sponsor's home and, most of all, she misses her mother
terribly. As the months pass, she realizes that she cannot control the circumstances
around her. She must rely on herself if she is to survive.
Finding Sophie - Sophie
Mandel was only seven years old when she arrived in London on the first
Kindertransport from Germany. She has grown up with a friend of her parents, a
woman she calls Aunt Em, and despite the war and its deprivations, she has made
a good life for herself in England with her foster mother. She has even stopped
thinking about the parents she left behind. Now the war is over, and
fourteen-year-old Sophie is faced with a terrible dilemma. Where does she
belong?
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book. In
the past we have taught about the Kindertransport in my class. However, I liked this much more than the book
the county had picked for us. It gave us
a realistic look into how children were actually treated. Those of us who have studied and taught about
the life of a Jew during the times of the Nazis know that they had a lot of
persecution to deal with. Many parents
sent their young children off to England for safe keeping, never knowing if
they would be seen again. They believed
that the people taking in their children would treat them like they would their
own. This was not always true. Many of
them as you learn from the stories in this book wanted them for free
labor, others saw them as traitors or
demons. I felt for Marianne the main
character of the first two stories. She
is bounced around form one home to another.
Mistreated, thrown out or forced to live in opposition to her religious
upbringing. Sophia, the young girl
Marianne meets on the train is treated much better. Her “Aunt Em” is a friend of the family and
treats her as if she is a relative. There is very little written about this
time and it is refreshing to find a book that does such a wonderful job of
telling it, even though the story is historical fiction. This will be a great addition to my
bookshelves at school.
