Part of a his­tor­i­cal fic­tion series, this won­der­ful book clear­ly shows the many obsta­cles an unac­com­pa­nied minor would have faced while leav­ing Nazi Ger­many and adapt­ing to life in the Unit­ed States. Wern­er is thir­teen, Jew­ish, and liv­ing in Ger­many in 1939. His moth­er has died, and his father and sis­ter are his only fam­i­ly. He has seen his father lose his job, Jew­ish busi­ness­es board­ed up, and the Nazis com­ing to get Jew­ish fam­i­lies and remov­ing them from their homes. He is aston­ished one evening when his father gives him a tick­et to Amer­i­ca on a ship that is leav­ing from Frank­furt. It is a three-day walk from his home to the port and he must begin imme­di­ate­ly. When he gets to Amer­i­ca, he is to live with his invalid cousin. He wants des­per­ate­ly for his father and sis­ter to join him, but his father says he is too old and his sis­ter is too young. Wern­er must go first and the oth­ers can follow. 

Wern­er then starts the longest jour­ney of his life and he must do it alone. The chal­lenges he faces include: being blocked from board­ing the ship, enter­ing the U.S. and ini­tial­ly not find­ing the per­son who came to pick him up, find­ing out how to care for his cousin Esther, fac­ing lone­li­ness until he finds a friend, being almost beat­en to death by his cousin’s boyfriend, and find­ing that all the let­ters he has writ­ten to his fam­i­ly are sent back to him unread because his fam­i­ly is no longer at their address. When the let­ters are returned, the hope that Wern­er has that he will be reunit­ed with his fam­i­ly is shat­tered. He col­laps­es, falls into the riv­er and almost drowns. The book con­cludes with Wern­er join­ing the army and return­ing to Ger­many. There he finds out that his fam­i­ly is dead. 

The book is fast paced and read­ers watch with antic­i­pa­tion for the out­come of each of Werner’s adven­tures. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 11 – 15.